Abstract
Perinatal loss refers to a traumatic event that has a significant impact on the mental health of a woman. Perinatal loss is a complicated emotional ordeal for both the woman and her family. Women who have lost a child during pregnancy or after childbirth have practically no direct life experience of communicating with an infant, while grief in the context of perinatal loss does not significantly differ in intensity from another type of loss. This article describes the results of a research on the representations regarding emotional reactions while experiencing perinatal loss during pregnancy and after birth. The study involved 84 people, aged 19 to 61 (47% men). The authors’ questionnaire and statistical methods were used (descriptive statistics, Mann Whitney test, Wilcoxon Test, and χ2-test). It was established that the representations about the situations that can be attributed to perinatal loss and types of assistance are different for men and women who have the experience of perinatal loss and those who do not; the differences are observed in the assessments of emotional experiences during the loss of a fetus and the loss of a newborn for men and women who have the experience of perinatal loss, and those who do not; men and women may have differences in assessing emotional experiences in the situation of losing a fetus during pregnancy or losing a newborn. The perspectives of the research are the study of factors influencing the loss and distortion of the image of the physical I for women who have experienced perinatal loss.
Highlights
The loss of a loved one turns the idea of the world upside down, divides life into "before" and "after"
The following assumptions were tested: (1) representations about the situations that can be attributed to perinatal loss, and the types of assistance may be different for men and women who experienced perinatal loss, and those who did not; (2) there may be differences in the assessments of emotional experiences during the loss of a fetus and the loss of a newborn for men and women who have the experience of perinatal loss and those who do not; (3) men and women can have differences in assessing emotional experiences in the situation of losing a fetus during pregnancy and losing a newborn
There is a tendency for manifesting differences in some assessments of emotional experiences during fetal loss for men and women who have the experience of perinatal loss and those who do not (Mann Whitney U test)
Summary
The loss of a loved one turns the idea of the world upside down, divides life into "before" and "after". The concepts of "grief" and "loss" are often used synonymously. The psychological cause of grief is affective attachment and the loss of a significant object, and the loss of love, security, or a sense of well-being" [1]. The concept of "loss" is understood as the loss of something significant, valuable, something to which the individual has a strong affective attachment, something that contributes to the individual's feeling of the integrity of oneself and the stability of one's existence. Perinatal loss is a collective concept that combines the mortality of viable fetuses from the 28th week (since 2012 – from 22 weeks) of pregnancy to the onset of labor for the mother, as well as during childbirth and the mortality of children during the first 168 hours (7 days) of life [2]. The perinatal loss remains an important demographic issue of concern in the modern world, and, according to the data for 2018, every fifth Russian family is faced with reproductive or perinatal losses [2, p. 26]
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