Perinatal loss is when parents lose their child during pregnancy or after birth. Families
are biologically, emotionally, culturally, and spiritually exhausted during perinatal grief. It is
estimated that there are over 2.7 million deaths annually across the world, and about 5.69 percent
for every 1000 births in the U.S (Ely & Driscoll, 2020). Parents who have experienced
pregnancy after perinatal loss often feel like their experiences are misunderstood by family,
friends and even healthcare providers. Reactions to perinatal loss can only be understood if we
appreciate the occurrence of this death during pregnancy. Identifying the gap and filling it with
accessible information and measures on how to handle the loss is what is missing, but what can
we do about it?
Causes of Perinatal Loss
Infant Respiratory Distress Syndrome
Also called respiratory distress syndrome, it happens when a baby's lungs are not fully
developed and cannot provide enough oxygen to the body, causing breathing difficulties. The
syndrome is most common in premature babies born six or more weeks before their due date
(Fernández‐Basanta et al., 2020) It begins shortly after birth and manifests by fast breathing, a
fast heart rate, Chest wall retractions, expiratory grunting, nasal flaring, and blue skin
discoloration during the breathing efforts. Despite the considerable advances in care, the baby
dies, making the syndrome the single most common cause of neonatal deaths.
Preterm Birth
Usually, pregnancy lasts about 40 weeks, but when birth occurs before the 37th week, it
is said to be a preterm birth. When a pregnancy does not last the entire term, it carries its fair
share of complications. In the final week, vital organs of the body include the lungs, brain, and
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liver. With these organs not developed, the immature lungs make it difficult for the infant to
breathe; poor feeding, difficulty regulating body temperature, slow weight gain, cerebral palsy,
hearing, and vision problems also come from the under-developed body organs (Ravaldi et al.,
2018).
Medication and Substance Abuse
During pregnancy, anything and everything that goes into the mother's body can affect
the unborn baby. Smoking, drinking alcohol, abusing prescription drugs, or using illicit
substances can pass through the placenta and harm the unborn baby. Estimates show that about 5
percent of pregnant women use one more addictive substance (Heazell et al., 2019). The regular
use of some substances can cause neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS), congenital disabilities,
low birth weight, premature births, small head circumference, and sudden infant death syndrome
(SIDS).
Prior Pregnancy Loss
The loss of any pregnancy through miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, stillbirth, or neonatal
death is a significant event for any woman, often presenting a substantial crisis in her life. The
crisis presents many losses, including but not limited to the loss of future hopes, low self-esteem,
loss of anticipation of being a parent, loss of perinatal medical attention, and concern over the
potential ability to create another new life (Fernández-Sola et al., 2020). Eventually, when the
parents decide to have a new baby, not so much effort is put in, which may increase the chances
of losing the baby again.
Care and Teaching Interventions
Parental grief has been linked to a general decline in physical and mental health.
Bereaved parents had higher healthcare utilization, more sick days away from work, and more
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sleep problems. Parents may associate reduced health behaviour with increased risks such as
poor diet, lack of exercise, excessive alcohol consumption, or drug abuse. Critical caregivers
may want to encourage positive health behaviours in bereaved parents, knowing the risks.
Creating keepsakes with or for the parents provides a tangible memory of the child.
Keepsakes provide parents with a way to cherish a part of their child when a child is no
longer present, especially in neonatology, where parents will not have been outside the
hospital with their child. They keep the parents attached and close to their child to
provide comfort. Keepsakes can help parents remember the child and conceptually
process the loss while revising autobiographical memories and the child's memories to
adjust to reality over time. (October et al., 2018, p.18)
Parents value ongoing contact with hospital staff because it allows them to interact with
their children before they die. When parents believe that the hospital staff remembers their child,
it is as if the hospital acknowledges their identity and validates that their child had an impact and
mattered. The conversations that ensue during the follow-up contact sessions assist the parents in
coping with the loss. The sessions also provide a platform for reassurance that nothing could
have been done differently (Ravaldi et al., 2018). During the follow-up, the parents are allowed
to re-adjust their memories of the situation, address their doubts about themselves, and treasure
memories of their child, which results in readjustment to new memories and thus the creation of
new plans about themselves, their child, and past events.
Information, folders, booklets, workshops, and seminars can assist parents in regaining
some control over the many different challenges they face when placed in new, unknown, and
insecure situations. This helps the parents feel more prepared for practical matters such as
financial aid, funeral arrangements, and locating additional emotional support when needed
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(Furtado-Eraso et al., 2021) The information provided and the validation of their emotions assist
parents in developing new knowledge structures and plans for their grief and the future they face.
It aids in the appraisal process and provides fresh-looking models.
Remembrance activities allow you to reconnect with your child and recall memories from
their life. It also implies a sense of support from friends, family, hospital staff, and the
community, which may aid the parents in coping with their loss (October et al., 2018).
Memorabilia events create a safe environment where parents can feel connected to their child
and their bond in the new reality.
Conclusion
Health professionals who work with bereaved parents must learn how to support
bereaved parents both during their child's stay and in the early post-death period. Parental
bereavement is an adaptive process, and for vulnerable families, ongoing professional support
may be required. Following the child's hospitalization and death, a bereavement follow-up
meeting with the physician(s) and staff may provide parents with additional information,
emotional support, and an opportunity to provide feedback on their experience (Heazell et al.,
2019). Instituting systems to take up the challenge of providing information on gradually dealing
with loss and expectance at the same time should be a priority in our health care systems.
Although there are existing systems to help manage loss, there is still a lot to be done in that
same pipeline.
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References
Ely, D. M., & Driscoll, A. K. (2020). Infant mortality in the United States, 2017: data from the
period linked birth/infant death file. National Vital Statistics Report, 69(7), 1-18.
Fernández‐Basanta, S., Coronado, C., & Movilla‐Fernández, M. J. (2020). Multicultural
coping experiences of parents following perinatal loss: A meta‐ethnographic synthesis.
Journal of Advanced Nursing, 76(1), 9-21.
Fernández-Sola, C., Camacho-Ávila, M., Hernández-Padilla, J. M., Fernández-Medina, I. M.,
Jiménez-López, F. R., Hernández-Sánchez, E., … & Granero-Molina, J. (2020). Impact of
perinatal death on the social and family context of the parents. International Journal of
Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(10),
3421.https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17103421
Furtado-Eraso, S., Escalada-Hernández, P., & Marín-Fernández, B. (2021). Integrative review of
emotional care following perinatal loss. Western Journal of Nursing Research, 43(5),
489-504. https://doi.org/10.1177/0193945920954448
Heazell, A. E., Wojcieszek, A., Graham, N., & Stephens, L. (2019). Care in pregnancies after
stillbirth and perinatal death. International Journal of Birth and Parent Education,6(2),
23-28.
October, T., Dryden-Palmer, K., Copnell, B., & Meert, K. L. (2018). Caring for parents after the
death of a child. Pediatric Critical Care Medicine: A Journal of The Society of Critical
Care Medicine and The World Federation of Pediatric Intensive and Critical Care
Societies, 19(8), S61. https://doi.org/10.1097/PCC.0000000000001466