October is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness month. If you don’t know this pain personally, it’s likely you love someone who does. Even if you prefer to grieve privately, you need not grieve alone: we are ever and always grieving with God “for God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved; God will help her when morning dawns” (Psalm 46:5). Below is a prayer written for grieving the loss of a pregnancy or infant, along with additional resources for corporate and private worship.

A Prayer for Pregnancy and Infant Loss

My God, My God, why has my body forsaken me?

My womb commits mutiny against my very soul,

and I am empty.

Who holds the mother when she cries?

Where can I go to escape the bitterness

of a life never lived?

Cradle me in your bosom, my God.

There I will find my Comfort

gathering all with empty wombs and arms and hearts

under the shadow of your wings.

There I will find my Hope

through your Child who died

and is risen now and forever.

Amen.

Isaiah 26:17-19

17 As a pregnant woman about to give birth
    writhes and cries out in her pain,
    so were we in your presence, Lord.
18 We were with child, we writhed in labor,
    but we gave birth to wind.
We have not brought salvation to the earth,
    and the people of the world have not come to life.

19 But your dead will live, Lord;
    their bodies will rise—
let those who dwell in the dust
    wake up and shout for joy—
your dew is like the dew of the morning;
    the earth will give birth to her dead.

Further Resources

ChurchPublishing.org offers a series of liturgies and prayers related to childbearing, childbirth, and loss. While many are written for corporate worship, pages 14-18 include a service for the private use of individuals, couples, families or small groups: https://www.churchpublishing.org/siteassets/pdf/liturgies-and-prayers-related-to-childbearing/enrichingourworship5.pdf