Am J Psychiatry 1989; 146:635-639
Copyright © 1989 by American Psychiatric Association
Perinatal loss and parental bereavement
SK Theut, FA Pedersen, MJ Zaslow, RL Cain, BA Rabinovich and JM Morihisa
Child and Family Research Section, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Bethesda, Md.
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.
