PERINATAL GRIEF. A PHENOMENOLOGICAL STUDY ON PERCEPTION AND MEANING FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF PARENT

Abstract

Perinatal grief experienced by parents is a process that is often minimized and made invisible. The loss of a child leads to the development of grief, in this case called unauthorized or invisibilized grief, because it is not legitimized or accepted by health professionals, their families or society. Usually parents experience a psychological and emotional adaptation during death and perinatal bereavement. Objective: To construct a reflective theoretical approach on the perception and meaning of perinatal bereavement from the parents' perspective. Methods: Qualitative study, under a hermeneutic phenomenological approach, using Spiegelberg's method. The key informants were five parents who are going through a perinatal bereavement, in a public health institution in the south of Quito, Ecuador. The in-depth interview was the data collection technique. Results: Parents experience a sense of unreality with intense pain, with feelings of frustration, sadness, helplessness, develop emotional stress that has consequences in their couple relationship, family role and their closest social ties. Conclusions: It was evidenced the feelings that parents experience by the death of their child and how they go through the grieving process, understanding their behavior and need for emotional containment both family and health professionals. In addition, it was possible to understand that there is a lack of accompaniment on the part of health professionals due to lack of knowledge of coping strategies and concealment of feelings in family accompaniment