This is the second of two prayers to be used at the loss of a pregnancy. Here’s a link to the first, words for the once-pregnant woman. This prayer is for her husband or partner. The two have a parallel structure, with similar themes and cadence moving throughout, with slightly different emotions and points-of-view reflected in the wording. Optional lines appear in [brackets]. Gender choices are identified with a slash, “/”. Both prayers appear in Jewish Prayers of Hope and Healing.

Loss of a Pregnancy (Partner)
G-d of Old,
What can I say before You?
I am crushed,
Flattened by sadness,
Cut down by grief.
Yet my wife/partner/spouse needs
My courage and my tears,
My gentleness and my strength.
Our lives,
Once ripe with promise,
Feel vacant and hollow,
And I have touched
A new loneliness and despair.

[Rock of Ages,
Why have You raised our hopes only to take them away?
Why have you abandoned our prayers and our dreams?
What comfort remains?]

Source and Shelter,
Teach me to honor, to balance and to express
Both my pain and my fortitude,
My endurance and my sorrow,
In service to You,
In service to my wife/partner/spouse,
In service to myself.
Lead me/us out of this darkness,
Back to awe and wonder,
So I/we may know,
Once again,
Hope and joy,
Gratitude and peace.

© 2013 Alden Solovy and tobendlight.com. All rights reserved.

Postscript: See also “Loss of a Pregnancy.” Here are links to two mourner’s prayers: “After Shiva” and “For the Bereaved.”

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Photo Credit: Mom Logic

Tags: grief, prayer after miscarriage, prayer at spontaneous end of pregnancy, trauma