Understanding Grief and Women's Mental Wellbeing
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Across different stages of life, women often navigate these experiences while balancing family, caregiving and professional responsibilities. Societal expectations to remain strong and prioritize others can leave their own emotional needs unrecognized.
It is perceived as a natural response to loss, yet its impact on women’s mental health is often overlooked. Beyond losing a loved one, women may experience grief through relationship breakdowns, pregnancy loss, infertility, family violence, declining health or changes in identity. Grief has no fixed timeline, and its impact can reshape a woman’s identity, relationships, life roles, and hopes for the future.
Key Insights
| Type of Loss | Australian Statistics | Interpretation Related to Grief |
|---|---|---|
| Pregnancy-related loss | In 2023, Victoria recorded 702 stillbirths (9.5 per 1,000 births) (AIHW, 2023). | Pregnancy loss can involve grief for the baby, lost hope, and an imagined future. This grief may be overlooked or misunderstood. |
| Loss of safety and security | 23% of Australian women (approximately 2.3 million) had experienced intimate partner violence since age 15 (ABS, 2021–22). | Survivors may experience grief associated with losing trust, safety, independence and a sense of identity, even when no death has occurred. |
Grief Across Cultural and Family Experiences
Grief is shaped by cultural beliefs, family relationships, and personal experiences. Women from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds may experience loss through migration, separation from loved ones, changes in cultural identity or being unable to participate in meaningful family traditions and rituals. Family conflict, rejection, and domestic violence may also bring grief associated with lost relationships, safety, independence, and belonging.
Cultural expectations, language barriers, mental health stigma and limited awareness of available services can make it difficult for some women to express emotional distress or seek professional support. While faith, family and community connections can provide comfort and resilience, expectations to remain strong or keep personal struggles private may leave grief unrecognized.
For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, cultural practices such as Sorry Business may hold particular significance. Culturally responsive mental health support recognizes these diverse experiences by promoting cultural safety, accessible language services, individual choice, and respect for cultural and spiritual practices.
What Can Grief Look Like?
- Bereavement and Traumatic Grief: Grief following the death of a loved one, including sudden or traumatic losses such as accidents or suicide.
- Anticipatory Grief: Emotional distress experienced before an expected loss, such as a loved one's terminal illness.
- Disenfranchised and Ambiguous Grief: Unrecognized losses, such as infertility or miscarriage, or losses without clear closure, including family estrangement or dementia.
- Relationship and Trauma-Related Loss: Grief associated with separation, divorce, family violence or sexual harassment, involving the loss of trust, safety, dignity, independence or meaningful relationships.
- Identity-Related Grief: Grieving changes in health, fertility, career, independence or personal identity.
- Cumulative Grief: The emotional impact of experiencing multiple losses over time, often with limited opportunities to process them.
- Ambiguous grief: Loss without clear closure, such as a missing loved one or a family member living with dementia.
Grief Across Women’s Lifespan
These age ranges are illustrative. Grief can occur at any stage, and experiences vary between individuals.
- Childhood (0–12): Girls who experience family separation or bereavement may show anxiety, insecurity or changes in behavior.
- Adolescence (13–19): Friendship loss, rejection, and family changes may affect mood, belonging, and identity.
- Early adulthood (20–35): Relationship breakdown, pregnancy loss, infertility or parental death may bring sadness, guilt and uncertainty.
- Midlife (36–55): Divorce, caregiving, parental loss and menopause may contribute to exhaustion or anxiety.
- Later adulthood (56–70): Retirement, bereavement and changing family roles may bring loneliness or adjustment difficulties.
- Older adulthood (70+): Losing partners or friends and changes in independence may increase isolation and distress.
Understanding the Link Between Grief and Mental Health
Grief itself is not a mental illness, but when distress becomes persistent or overwhelming, grief may coexist with depression, anxiety, trauma-related conditions, or prolonged grief disorder. Sadness, anger, guilt, fatigue, poor sleep, difficulty concentrating, and withdrawal are often natural responses to loss. The emotional impact of grief can be further compounded by financial hardship, caregiving responsibilities, social isolation, past trauma, and barriers to accessing culturally appropriate support.
Navigating through grief & emotional wellbeing
Grief affects everyone differently, and compassionate support can make a meaningful difference to women's mental wellbeing.
- Listen and validate: Acknowledge feelings without judgement or pressure to move on.
- Respect individual and cultural needs: Honour personal choices, boundaries, spiritual beliefs and cultural grieving practices.
- Offer practical assistance: Help with childcare, meals, appointments, or everyday responsibilities.
- Encourage safe connections: Promote trusted relationships, support groups, and thoughtful check-ins during difficult moments.
- Support healthy coping: Encourage rest, gentle exercise, journaling and meaningful remembrance rituals.
- Seek professional support: A GP, grief counsellor or psychologist can help when grief affects sleep, relationships, daily functioning, or emotional wellbeing.
You Are Not Alone: Finding Support in Australia
Remember: Seeking support is a sign of strength. You do not need to wait until grief becomes overwhelming. In an immediate emergency, call 000.
- Lifeline: 24-hour crisis support — 13 11 14 (000 in an emergency)
- 13YARN: 24-hour crisis support for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people — 13 92 76
- Grief line: Telephone support for adults experiencing grief and loss — 1300 845 745
- Grief Australia: Bereavement information, grief education, and specialist support — grief.org.au
- Red Nose Grief and Loss: 24-hour support after pregnancy, baby or child loss — 1300 308 307
- Sands: 24-hour miscarriage, stillbirth and newborn death support — 1300 072 637
- PANDA: Perinatal anxiety and depression support — 1300 726 306
Beyond loss, every woman deserves compassion, understanding and support throughout her journey.
Blog Written By Master of Social Work Interns:
Christine Perera, Anne Kinyanjui and Ichhapreet Kaur
