Estudio fenomenológico sobre la experiencia de las familias en el duelo perinatal

Abstract

Introduction: Death and perinatal grief is one of the hardest and most stressful events in parents' lives, affecting the biological, psychological, social and spiritual levels. With more than 2,6 million perinatal deaths in the world and more than 2000 of cases in Spain, it is important to give the best care to mothers and fathers who go through the hard time of baby. Care is essential from the health system and society in general, a society that currently does not recognize and legitimize perinatal grief. Objectives: Describe and understand the experiences of mothers and fathers who have lived a perinatal death. Methodology: A qualitative study based on the hermeneutic phenomenology of Gadamer was carried out. In-depth interviews were conducted and an inductive analysis was done to find the main topics. We interviewed 13 mothers and 8 fathers who were treated at the Hospitals of Torrevieja and Vinalopó, both in Alicante. These parents experienced the perinatal death of a baby 5 years prior to the study and met the inclusion criteria. Results: 33 subthemes were obtained from the data analysis and these were grouped into 9 themes; four main themes emerged: "Experiencing the death of a baby", "Physical and psychological consequences of perinatal death", "Impact of perinatal death in the sociofamiliar context of parents" and "Parents´ experiences about support following stillbirth and neonatal death”. Conclusions: Perinatal grief is a devastating experience for both mother and father, as well as for siblings and the rest of the family environment, affecting physically, psychologically and emotionally. Therefore, high quality of health care is necessary, with a unification of criteria and care based on scientific evidence, as well as parents' wishes and expectations.