Loss of a preterm infant: psychological aspects in parents

The unexpected death of a preterm infant is an extremely painful situation for parents. Despite a number of quantitative studies, little is known about parents' inner experience. The aim of this study was to gather more in-depth information about what preoccupies parents in this situation of suffering, thus leading to a deeper understanding of their dealing with the stressful event and enabling more adequate support to be provided by professionals. 10 mothers and 9 fathers, who had lost their extremely premature infant born between 24 and 26 weeks of gestation were invited for a semi-structured interview and retrospectively asked about their emotional, cognitive, physical and social experience at three different points in time (time of hospitalisation, 6 months and 3.5-6.5 years after the loss). The interviews were analysed by method of qualitative context analysis.