Leading up to Loss: Understanding the Perinatal Grief Experience for Expectant Fathers when a Life-Limiting Fetal Diagnosis is Confirmed

Abstract

The study aims to understand how men cope with the anticipated loss of their child when a life-limiting fetal diagnosis is confirmed in pregnancy. Twenty-five fathers responded to an online qualitative survey exploring their perinatal loss experiences. Data provide the reader with a glimpse of fathers’ thoughts and feelings between the time of the confirmed fetal diagnosis and the baby’s birth. Study participants chose to either engage with their pregnant partners through showing protection, emotional strength or by being productive in the areas in which they felt they could control; while others chose to avoid by not expressing their feelings with their partners, socially isolating, and turning to their work as a source of refuge. Therapeutic birth planning was shown to be a beneficial method to prepare fathers for their pending loss, involve fathers and their partners in the prenatal decision making and allow fathers to express their feelings throughout the process leading up to the loss. Study results hope to enhance the dearth of research on men’s bereavement experiences in the context of perinatal palliative care and encourage providers to acknowledge fathers’ grief in anticipation of a perinatal loss.