Impact of perinatal loss on the subsequent pregnancy and self: women's experiences.

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To describe the experience of a pregnancy after perinatal loss. DESIGN: Descriptive, open-ended responses to a self-completed questionnaire. SETTING: Questionnaires were distributed at a prenatal visit and completed in the office or at home. PARTICIPANTS: Seventy-two women who were 17 to 28 weeks pregnant, with a history of one or two perinatal losses. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Themes that emerged from the women's responses to the questions. RESULTS: Three main dimensions, Past Pregnancy, Current Pregnancy, and Self constituted the overall framework for the themes of pregnancy anxiety, significant points in time, ways of coping, safe passage, social acceptance, binding-in, and grief and loss. CONCLUSIONS: Pregnancy after perinatal loss is characterized by guarded emotions, anxiety about this pregnancy, marking off the progress of the pregnancy in terms of fetal development and safety, and individual ways of coping to meet the tasks of pregnancy by seeking out or avoiding various behaviors. Women who have experienced perinatal loss would benefit from interventions to help them through these anxiety-filled pregnancies.