The grief response to mid-trimester fetal loss

This descriptive study examines the grief response of mothers who experienced a fetal loss in the middle trimester of pregnancy. Twenty mothers who lost a baby through spontaneous abortion or perinatal death within 1 year participated in this study. Data were collected by mailed questionnaires. All characteristics typical of the grief response were identified, including despair, anger or hostility, guilt, loss of control, rumination, depersonalization, somatization, and death anxiety. Comparison of the study population to a group of parents who suffered the loss of a child and to a group of women who had suffered the death of a close relative demonstrated that the study group presented a grief response similar in nature and intensity to the two normative groups. This study supports previous studies that indicated the existence of grief after mid-trimester fetal loss. Replication of this study with a larger sample is recommended to further support these findings.