The anxiety of pregnancy after loss was greater than anything I’d experienced before and there were many days I wondered if I would be able to make it through.

Throughout all of my pregnancies after loss, I didn’t have the tools or skills to help me ease my fears and alleviate my anxiety. Years later, however, I know there are many effective ways to help reduce anxiety during a pregnancy after loss. While the anxiety of dealing with another loss never fully goes away- reclaiming hope after loss, while incredibly difficult, is NOT impossible.

Here are 10 tips and mantras to help you or a loved one get through the difficult times and reduce anxiety during pregnancy after loss:

Chances are, if you’re reading this you recently saw two pink or blue lines pop up on a pregnancy test. And chances are, you’ve seen those lines before, and it’s ended unexpectedly in a loss.

So, first, my heart goes out to you. I’m sure you’re excited and anxious and overjoyed and terrified, all at the same time. And I can only imagine that you’re afraid to get your hopes up. Afraid to get too attached. Afraid of the what-ifs. And, guess what? That is totally normal! It means you are human, that you have loved before, and that you already love this new tiny human.

Pregnancy after loss is incredibly hard, and early pregnancy after loss can feel like the hardest couple of weeks of your life. Often, you are still grieving and you feel like you’ll be crushed under the weight of fear. But you can still have joy, you can still thrive, and you can still have a fulfilling, hope-filled pregnancy.

So here are ten tips for surviving early pregnancy after loss: