Assessment of guidelines for good psychosocial practice for parents who have lost an infant through perinatal or postnatal death

Recently, guidelines for good psychosocial practice for parents who have lost a child at an obstetric or neonatal ward have been criticised. Members of a national association for parents who had lost an infant (N = 566) reported their acute bereavement behavior and rituals and filled in standardized questionnaires for degree of traumatization, symptomatology, and grief. The age of the child was not associated with any measure of distress. Seeing the dead child and having an open coffin were associated with reduced distress, while specific mementoes and the number of mementoes were associated with augmented distress. The gender of the lost and the gender of an eventual new child were also associated with specific changes in distress depending on the age of the deceased child.