Professional Bereavement Photography in the Setting of Perinatal Loss: A Qualitative Analysis

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Abstract

Perinatal loss, including fetal and infant death, is a devastating experience for parents, resulting in long-term adverse physical and psychosocial outcomes. However, little is known about what services might best support grieving parents. We aimed to understand the role of professional bereavement photography in assisting the grieving process of parents who have lost a fetus or infant, by examining the perspectives of bereaved parents, professional photographers, and health care professionals. Twenty semistructured interviews were conducted, and interview transcripts were analyzed using modified grounded theory. Twenty-three individuals participated, including 6 bereaved parents, 8 photographers, and 9 health care professionals. Analyses generated 5 major themes describing ways in which the photographs were valuable to parents: validation of the experience, permission to share, creation of a permanent and tangible legacy, creation of positive memories, and moving forward after the loss. Hospitals should consider incorporation of professional bereavement photography services into palliative care and bereavement programs.

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Most cited references 27

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Mortality in parents after death of a child in Denmark: a nationwide follow-up study.

Dorthe Precht, Jørn Olsen, Jiong Li … (2003)

Little is known about the effect of parental bereavement on physical health. We investigated whether the death of a child increased mortality in parents. We undertook a follow-up study based on national registers. From 1980 to 1996, we enrolled 21062 parents in Denmark who had a child who had died (exposed cohort), and 293745 controls--ie, parents whose children were alive, and whose family structure matched that of the exposed cohort. Natural deaths were defined with ICD8 codes 0000-7969 and ICD10 codes A00-R99, and unnatural deaths with codes 8000-9999 and V01-Y98. We used Cox's proportional-hazards regression models to assess the mortality rate of parents up to 18 years after bereavement. We observed an increased overall mortality rate in mothers whose child had died (hazards ratio 1.43, 95% CI 1.24-1.64; p<0.0001). An excess mortality from natural causes (1.44, 1.15-1.78; p<0.0001) was noted in mothers only during the 10th-18th year of follow-up. Mothers had increased mortality rates from unnatural causes throughout follow-up, with the highest rate recorded during the first 3 years (3.84, 2.48-5.88; p<0.0001). Bereaved fathers had only an early excess mortality from unnatural causes (1.57, 1.06-2.32; p=0.04). Mothers who lost a child due to an unnatural death or an unexpected death had a hazard ratio of 1.72 (1.38-2.15; p=0.0040) and 1.67 (1.37-2.03; p=0.0037), respectively. The death of a child is associated with an overall increased mortality from both natural and unnatural causes in mothers, and an early increased mortality from unnatural causes in fathers.

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Stillbirths: why they matter.

J Frederik Frøen, Joanne Cacciatore, Elizabeth McClure … (2011)

In this first paper of The Lancet's Stillbirths Series we explore the present status of stillbirths in the world-from global health policy to a survey of community perceptions in 135 countries. Our findings highlight the need for a strong call for action. In times of global focus on motherhood, the mother's own aspiration of a liveborn baby is not recognised on the world's health agenda. Millions of deaths are not counted; stillbirths are not in the Global Burden of Disease, nor in disability-adjusted life-years lost, and they are not part of the UN Millennium Development Goals. The grief of mothers might be aggravated by social stigma, blame, and marginalisation in regions where most deaths occur. Most stillborn babies are disposed of without any recognition or ritual, such as naming, funeral rites, or the mother holding or dressing the baby. Beliefs in the mother's sins and evil spirits as causes of stillbirth are rife, and stillbirth is widely believed to be a natural selection of babies never meant to live. Stillbirth prevention is closely linked with prevention of maternal and neonatal deaths. Knowledge of causes and feasible solutions for prevention is key to health professionals' priorities, to which this Stillbirths Series paper aims to contribute. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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Hospitalization for mental illness among parents after the death of a child.

Dorthe Precht, Thomas Laursen, Jørn Olsen … (2005)

The loss of a child is considered one of the most stressful events in the life of a parent. We hypothesized that parental bereavement increases the risk of hospital admission for a psychiatric disorder, especially for affective disorders. We studied a cohort of 1,082,503 persons identified from national registers in Denmark who were born between 1952 and 1999 and had at least one child under 18 years of age during the follow-up period, from 1970 to 1999. Parents who lost a child during follow-up were categorized as "bereaved" from the date of death of the child. As compared with parents who did not lose a child, parents who lost a child had an overall relative risk of a first psychiatric hospitalization for any disorder of 1.67 (95 percent confidence interval, 1.53 to 1.83). Bereaved mothers had a higher relative risk of being hospitalized for any psychiatric disorder than bereaved fathers (relative risks, 1.78 [95 percent confidence interval, 1.60 to 1.98] and 1.38 [95 percent confidence interval, 1.17 to 1.63], respectively; P value for interaction, 0.01). The relative risks of hospitalization specifically for affective disorders were 1.91 (95 percent confidence interval, 1.59 to 2.30) and 1.61 (95 percent confidence interval, 1.15 to 2.27) for bereaved mothers and fathers, respectively. Among mothers, the relative risk of being hospitalized for any psychiatric disorder was highest during the first year after the death of the child but remained significantly elevated five years or more after the death. The risk of psychiatric hospitalization was increased among parents, especially mothers, who lost a child. Copyright 2005 Massachusetts Medical Society.

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Author and article information

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Glob Pediatr Health

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Glob Pediatr Health

Journal ID (publisher-id): GPH

Journal ID (hwp): spgph

Title: Global Pediatric Health

Publisher: SAGE Publications (Sage CA: Los Angeles, CA )

ISSN (Electronic): 2333-794X

Publication date (Electronic): 13 June 2019

Publication date Collection: 2019

Volume: 6

Electronic Location Identifier: 2333794X19854941

Affiliations

[1 ]University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA

[2 ]Seattle Children’s Hospital, Seattle, WA, USA

[3 ]University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

[4 ]Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA

Author notes

[*]Faustine D. Ramirez, University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine, 513 Parnassus Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94143, USA. Email: faustine.ramirez@ 123456ucsf.edu

Author information

Faustine D. Ramirez https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1362-6208

Article

Publisher ID: 10.1177_2333794X19854941

DOI: 10.1177/2333794X19854941

PMC ID: 6572886

SO-VID: 973b3d2a-b973-4c1a-a0cc-c4e4db3ba76c

License:

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License ( http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages ( https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).

History

Date received : 2 April 2019

Date revision received : 10 May 2019

Date accepted : 10 May 2019

Funding

Funded by: National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, FundRef https://doi.org/10.13039/100006108;

Award ID: UCSF-CTSI Grant Number TL1-TR001871

Funded by: Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, FundRef https://doi.org/10.13039/100009633;

Award ID: K12 HD050121-11

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cover-date January-December 2019

Keywords: bereavement,grief,qualitative research,perinatal loss,photography

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Keywords: bereavement, grief, qualitative research, perinatal loss, photography

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Professional Bereavement Photography in the Setting of Perinatal Loss: A Qualitative Analysis

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Most cited references 27

Mortality in parents after death of a child in Denmark: a nationwide follow-up study.

Stillbirths: why they matter.

Hospitalization for mental illness among parents after the death of a child.

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