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Neonatal death: grieving families
Author(s) -
Tudehope David I.,
Iredell Jon,
Rodgers David,
Cunn Andrew
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
medical journal of australia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.904
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1326-5377
pISSN - 0025-729X
DOI - 10.5694/j.1326-5377.1986.tb128376.x
Subject(s) - grief , crying , disenfranchised grief , anger , psychology , hostility , anxiety , depression (economics) , anorexia , pathological , traumatic grief , medicine , psychiatry , pediatrics , clinical psychology , economics , macroeconomics , pathology
This paper examines the stress on a family after a neonatal death. Sixty‐seven families who experienced 63 neonatal deaths and four post‐neonatal deaths were studied during an interview held eight weeks after the death. Predominant support for the parents was provided by each other (63%), their parents (33%), friends, many of whom had experienced a similar loss (16%), neighbours (15%) and religion (13%). Grief reactions were more commonly reported by mothers than by fathers and included: sleep disturbances (51%); depression or fits of crying (34%); anorexia or weight loss (33%); nervousness and anxiety (19%); social withdrawal (18%); morbid preoccupation (9%); and guilt, anger or hostility (9%). Grief reactions were graded on a scale of I (physically, psychologically and emotionally settled) to IV (serious symptoms that disturbed day‐to‐day functioning). Pathological grief reactions occurred in 21 families and correlated with a lack of parental support and contact with their critically ill infant and a severe initial grief state ( P < 0.05). There was no correlation with the type of initial grief reaction; the attachment to the baby; the age of the baby; the comprehension of the cause of death; the hospital care or the way that they were informed of the death. The loss of a newborn infant had a major pathological effect on 31% of the families that were studied. This was probably an underestimate as eight weeks is too soon to assess unresolved grief.