Grief Following Pregnancy Loss – Literature Review

Abstract

Introduction: Pregnancy loss is a stressful situation where in there is termination of pregnancy with adverse fetal or neonatal outcome .The literature related to grief reaction following pregnancy loss was reviewed to find out the nature, incidence and various factors affecting grief process.Methods: An electronic search of 46 published articles in the Medline, Pubmed and Psych Info databases was carried out covering a period from year 1982 to 2013, using the keywords pregnancy loss, miscarriages, spontaneous abortion, recurrent abortions, neonatal deaths, stillbirths in combination with grief and mourning.Results: Majority of studies on the subject were reported from developed countries. A large percentage of women seem to experience a grief, with the actual incidence of grief unavailable. Women experienced feeling of guilt, sense of inadequacy ,doubts about femininity ,anger towards oneself, spouse, friends ,depression, feelings of emptiness and sadness ,uncontrollable crying ,withdrawal from others and activities ,jealousy ,lowered self-esteem .Women with prior psychiatric symptoms, advanced gestational age and absence of living children at home are more predisposed to severe grief reaction after pregnancy loss.Conclusions: There is a need for greater awareness among health care providers (Practitioners, counsellors, nursing staff ,medical social workers) about the psychological reactions that may accompany a pregnancy loss .Health care providers need to spend extra time with the affected couples to understand their feelings following pregnancy loss, so as to find out solutions for their grief reaction .They need to be empathic, sensitive and supportive of couples faced with this type of loss.