Perinatal loss and parental bereavement.
The authors studied 25 middle-class pregnant women and their husbands who had experienced perinatal losses (16 miscarriages, seven stillbirths, and two neonatal deaths) within the previous 2 years. The Perinatal Bereavement Scale was designed to determine whether parents who have experienced a late perinatal loss (stillbirth or neonatal death) display more unresolved grief during a subsequent pregnancy and during the postnatal period than parents who have experienced a miscarriage. A three-factor repeated measures analysis of variance indicated significantly greater grief for the late-loss group, for the mothers, and during the pregnancy preceding the birth of the viable child.
Theut
S K
SK
Child and Family Research Section, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Bethesda, Md.
Pedersen
F A
FA
Zaslow
M J
MJ
Cain
R L
RL
Rabinovich
B A
BA
Morihisa
J M
JM
D000022:Abortion, Spontaneous; D000328:Adult; D005220:Fathers / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D005313:Fetal Death; D006117:Grief; D006801:Humans; D007226:Infant Mortality; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D010555:Personality Inventory; D011247:Pregnancy; D011594:Psychometrics; D012923:Social Class