Relation between grief and subsequent pregnancy status 13 months after perinatal bereavement
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Peter Barr
Abstract
Aims: The present longitudinal study sought to explore the relationship between parental grief following perinatal bereavement and subsequent pregnancy, according to the particular facets of grief and pregnancy state being considered.
Method: The study participants were 63 couples who had been bereaved by stillbirth (n=31) or neonatal death (n=32). The relationship of self-reported grief (Perinatal Grief Scale-33 Active Grief, Difficulty Coping and Despair) 1 month and 13 months after the loss to subsequent pregnancy status (Pregnant, n=20, Live Baby, n=10, Trying, n=11, Not Trying, n=22) at 13 months was investigated with repeated measures analysis of variance.
Results: There were statistically significant main effects for Active Grief and Difficulty Coping in women and men and Despair in women, but not in men. There was a statistically significant Active Grief by pregnancy status interaction in women (F(3, 59)=2.89, P=0.04), but not in men. Simple main effects analysis indicated a statistically significant decrease in Active Grief in women who were pregnant (F(1, 59)=52.8, P<0.0005), women who were not pregnant and not trying to conceive (F(1, 59)=27.5, P<0.0005), and women who had had a live baby (F(1, 59)=9.62, P=0.003). There was no statistically significant decrease in Active Grief in women who were not pregnant but trying to conceive (F(1, 59)=3.44, P=0.07). The Difficulty Coping in women and men and Despair in women by pregnancy status interactions were not statistically significant. None of the between-subjects main effects for pregnancy status was statistically significant in women or men.
Conclusion: The relation between grief and subsequent pregnancy differed with the sex of the parent and the particular facets of grief and pregnancy state being considered. Subsequent pregnancy was related to Active Grief in women, but not to Difficulty Coping or Despair that are known to be predictors of chronic grief.
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©2006 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin New York
Articles in the same Issue
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- Cesarean section in term breech presentations: do rates of adverse neonatal outcomes differ by hospital birth volume?
- Antibiotic therapy for preterm premature rupture of membranes – results of a multicenter study
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- Vaginal birth after cesarean section: X-ray pelvimetry at term is informative
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- Perinatal Programming
- Congress Calendar
Articles in the same Issue
- The chemical erosion of human health: adverse environmental exposure and in-utero pollution – determinants of congenital disorders and chronic disease
- Cesarean section in term breech presentations: do rates of adverse neonatal outcomes differ by hospital birth volume?
- Antibiotic therapy for preterm premature rupture of membranes – results of a multicenter study
- Relation between grief and subsequent pregnancy status 13 months after perinatal bereavement
- Vaginal birth after cesarean section: X-ray pelvimetry at term is informative
- Vaginal birth after cesarean section: X-ray pelvimetry at term is informative
- Dilatation of the abdominal umbilical vein is associated with increased risk of thrombotic complications
- Retrospective diagnosis of hypoxic myocardial injury in premature newborns
- Fetal brain injury in experimental intrauterine asphyxia and inflammation in Göttingen minipigs
- Intrauterine growth restriction induces increased capillary density and accelerated type I fiber maturation in newborn pig skeletal muscles
- Closing arguments for gastroschisis: management with silo reduction
- Mean platelet and red blood cell volume measurements to estimate the severity of hypertension in pregnancy
- Torsion of a pedunculated accessory hepatic lobe: differential diagnosis of projectile vomiting in a neonate
- Massive fetomaternal hemorrhage following failed external cephalic version: case report
- Resolution of peripheral tissue ischemia secondary to arterial vasospasm following treatment with a topical nitroglycerin device in two newborns: case reports
- Echocardiography and N-terminal pro BNP
- Frontal-dominant white matter lesions following congenital rubella and cytomegalovirus infection
- Perinatal Programming
- Congress Calendar
