The need for bereavement support following perinatal loss

Abstract

‘Perinatal loss is physically, emotionally, spiritually, and mentally taxing on parents and families. The grief that parents experience following the loss of a child is difficult to overcome and may never be fully resolved’ (LeDuff, Bradshaw, & Blake, 2017, p. 352). The theme I have chosen to review for this research round-up is the need for bereavement support for women and families following perinatal loss specifically, here, support from healthcare professionals. By the mid-1980s hospitals began to recognise and respond to perinatal loss in ways that acknowledged women’s grief through practices to help assuage that grief and make meaning of their experiences (Davidson, 2011, 2008). Key to these practices are the interactions and supports provided by healthcare professionals, especially those with the closest contact to women during and just after their loss (Davidson 2011, 2008; Säflund, Sjögren, & Wredling, 2004). However, as will be seen later in this review, monitoring women’s well-being and extending support to subsequent pregnancies is also important. Across the relevant literature, terms used to describe loss during or shortly after pregnancy vary by, for example, jurisdiction, weight, or gestational term. In my own work, and for our purposes as related to the articles for this review, I use the term ‘perinatal loss’ to include: loss of a baby/fetus at any stage of gestation where the loss occurs in hospital or can be supported by healthcare professionals; this includes babies miscarried or born prematurely, born still, or a baby who dies within 28 days after a live birth (a commonly understood as the ‘neonatal period’). I used Google Scholar to begin my search for relevant articles published in 2017. My choice of four articles from four different journals, written by researchers from different scholarly perspectives (psychology, sociology and social work, nursing, occupational therapy) was intentional. I begin this review with ‘The presence and predictors of complicated grief symptoms in perinatally bereaved mothers from a bereavement support organization’ (McSpedden, et al., 2017, pp. 112-117) written by psychologists and published in Death Studies. These authors note that while most mothers do not experience ‘complicated grief’, monitoring and providing supports to bereaved mothers is important to their health. Note here that the next three articles I have chosen for this review follow the theme of perinatal loss requiring more professional and social recognition and support, including opportunities for memory-making.