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Qualitative
Parents experiencing a perinatal death found that their interactions with social institutions devalued their loss

https://doi.org/10.1136/ebn.3.1.27

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    Malacrida C.Complicating mourning: the social economy of perinatal death.Qual Health Res1999 Jul;9:504–19OpenUrlCrossRefWeb of Science

    QUESTION: How do parents of infants who die in the perinatal period experience interactions with social institutions related to the death?

    Design

    Qualitative analysis of narratives from interviews.

    Setting

    Interviews were conducted in 2 large cities, a small town, and several rural communities in 2 provinces in Canada.

    Participants

    Parents (16 women and 6 men) who had lost an infant at ≥20 weeks gestational age were recruited through a newspaper advertisement and from 2 bereavement support groups. 16 infants were stillborn, 5 lived for a few hours, and 1 lived for 7.5 days.

    Methods

    Semistructured interviews were usually held in the participants' homes. Parents described their interactions with healthcare providers, social workers, funeral directors, insurance agents, clergy, family, and friends. Analysis was both inductive and deductive; data were coded using Rando's model of complicated mourning.

    Main findings

    Findings revealed an informal social …

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