Perinatal Care: A Mother Suffering

The death of a fetus during pregnancy is a very painful experience for mothers. Perinatal grief is a very sensitive problem, especially since it is often ignored and does not receive the treatment it needs.

When you know the implications of perinatal grief from the parents’ perspective, you can use this to reflect on the feelings that arise from this type of loss.

In this article, we will share the aspects that make perinatal grief one of the worst types of suffering a mother can experience. It is still an unknown form of grief for people who have not experienced anything like it.

What is perinatal grief?

When we talk about perinatal grief, we are referring to deaths that occur during pregnancy (miscarriage), childbirth or during the first weeks of the baby’s life.

Just thinking about it can make your blood freeze to ice. However, this type of loss tends to be ignored. Not much treatment is given and silenced by the surroundings when it is actually as painful and inexplicable as other losses.

Perinatal grief is often characterized as “unlawful grief.” Behind this, however, there are heartbreaking screams and cries.

Statistics show that this is a frequent reality; thousands of miscarriages are noted each year.

Perinatal grief: Painful details that many people ignore

Many parents receive the news of their baby’s death in utero via a sonography. They are then left alone.

After this, the most painful thing happens: the baby’s “birth”. The parents have no alternative to this procedure.

It is unfortunate that there is no legislation on this anywhere in the world. This is the reason why the social authorities do not help in this case.

In addition, parents who do not have the money to remove the child through medical procedures run the risk of it being turned into pathological waste.

What do many consider to be the most painful part? What happens next is that the mother is enrolled in the maternity ward, where her grief is met with a “carnival”.

She must hear the cries of other babies and be placed carelessly in an environment full of happiness when everything she sees is gray.

Spain has become a leader in this field. There are still maternity wards that ignore perinatal grief, but in the more advanced hospitals, a “circle of grief” has been created.

It was created so as not to confuse the parents who had just had healthy children with others who had just lost theirs.

Getting over perinatal grief

During perinatal grief, life and death live in the same space, leaving a void in the parents’ memory.

Specialists recommend that parents validate these memories by keeping things in a box that reminds them of the child: ultrasounds and symbolic objects that testify to grief and that their pain will one day be healed.

Other experts point to the importance of performing a farewell ritual. When dealing with perinatal loss, there is usually no way to organize a funeral.

However, a symbolic farewell is recommended: that you go to a special place, write something important or that you perform a memorable gesture such as planting a tree.

When dealing with a grief that is underestimated by society, each parent must find their own way of dealing with their own grief in the right way and get over it.

There are times when parents “self-medicate” using psychological medications. This can counteract and also complicate the normal grieving process.

To make society wake up

Did you know that millions of babies die every year around the world, causing great grief for the family? According to statistics, the number of these deaths is greater than the total number of deaths from HIV and malaria.

At the same time, these losses create a perinatal grief that can have psychological effects that last for a long time.

Did you know that today’s society is still not aware of perinatal grief? Due to this lack of awareness, no one talks about the babies who die in the mother’s womb.

It is always common with a grieving process after a loss, but a perinatal grief makes it different.

However, it is still considered a wrong grief that is even ignored. This means that those affected do not become sufficiently socially recognized by society.