Our culture doesn't really do anything to acknowledge the tragedy of a miscarriage. It's often a very private matter that women (and their husbands) have to go through alone. Often times, people don't know. When they do, they don't know what to say.
The Japanese culture is quite different. In Japan, when a pregnant woman loses her child, she can go to Jizo to make an offering. People bring baby toys and gifts to the Jizo statue who is then supposed to help your "mizuko" (miscarried child) find a second way into being...either by returning to you in the form of another baby or finding another family.
The Japanese also have something called a Nanairo-no-yadorigi tree, which has symbolic ties to fertility and pregnancy. You can write a wish on a piece of paper and twist it around a tree branch to help you conceive and protect an unborn child. The custom is that when the wish is granted, you return to the tree and find and untie the paper.
I think these traditions are beautiful. And it kind of makes me want to get a tree (just a little indoor one from Home Depot or something) and do something like this. I think it would be neat.
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