Stillborn loss
Historically perinatal loss such as stillborn is rarely a topic of discussion. (Avelin, Erlandsson, Hildingsson, & Rådestad, 2011). Stillborn loss was not viewed as an problem, and was expected for mothers to forget about the baby, and have another one, while siblings were told to forget about the baby and not talk about the loss (Avelin et al., 2011). Perinatal loss responses can be vary widely as it covers variety of loss from pregnancy to birth within a few weeks, but most often it is an unexpected loss for many families who typically do not know what to do, what to expect and how to handle grief (O’leary & Warland, 2013). Furthermore, there is very little information on Stillbirth experiences especially about men who lose their child(Bonnette & Broom, 2012). Experiencing the loss of a child can be very difficult and often complicate grief which can affect parents social well being (Kersting & Wagner, 2012). In pregnancies that follows a loss such as perinatal loss, it has been found that parents experience high levels of psychological distress, anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress. (O’leary & Warland, 2013; Kersting & Wagner, 2012)
Impact on parents
Parents develop an ongoing relationship with their unborn child throughout pregnancy stages. With unexpected loss such as a stillborn, parents suddenly feel the event to be surreal. (Ryninks, Roberts-Collins, McKenzie-McHarg, & Horsch, 2014). Parents expressed that stillbirth would never happen to
The loss of an adult child is devastating, just as is the death of a younger child. However, there are differences as to how both the parents react to such losses. In this case the paper focuses on the loss of an adult child and how the parent copes with the situation. The paper will give insight into the situation that precedes the demise of the child such as the trajectory of illnesses. A review on how the parents deal with the loss after it occurs will be discussed as well as the various issues the parent faces. The impact on the parent after the child’s loss will also feature. There will be a summary of the findings, then a section that will give the implications of the research and its importance to the field of psychology, and finally an as well as focusing on the bigger picture of loss with older parents who have lost their children.
According to the Oxford dictionary, "abortion is the expulsion of a fetus from the uterus by natural causes before it is able to survive independently." Abortion has perhaps been a highly politicized over the past several decades. The major political parties in the United States have adopted distinct positions on this issue. When the death a fetus occurs naturally, it is called a miscarriage. When the loss of a fetus is caused intentionally, it is regarded as a significant moral and societal issue that needs to be dealt with. An article on washingtonpost.com stated that, "studies show that there is an imbalance between the number of firearms-related deaths 30,000 a year and abortions performed each year in the United States more than 750,000 a year." This shows that more death occur from abortions that firearms. To better picture what an abortion is, the mental image of a baby covered in blood placed in a basin and chopped into about fifty pieces. This will help understand how cruel and wicked abortion is. I intend to argue that abortion is morally, logically, and religiously wrong. Unless murder becomes legal, abortion should remain illegal.
2. Parental reactions to perinatal deaths are different from other deaths. One does not grieve their grandparent
After a woman has an abortion, the chances are three to four times higher of the mother having a miscarriage because of damage to the uterus. There is a higher chance of the mother dying from having an abortion than there is from her dying from natural childbirth. Even though after an abortion the mother feels relief that the ordeal is over, feelings of “numbness” soon set in on their emotions. It’s not any different from what soldiers feel after being in the midst of war. It has been found in a study of 500 aborted women, 50 percent of them were dealing with negative feelings and 10 percent had “serious psychiatric complications.”
Summary: This article describes how emotionally and physically challenging stillbirth can be to its victims. Stillbirth which is “the birth of an infant that has died in the womb after having survived through at least the first 28 weeks of pregnancy”, is not only challenging for the mother of the baby, but it affects the whole family as well. Per to this article, stillbirth affects about 1 in 200 pregnancy and that’s in the U.S only, because
But, most overlook the potential of the child. For example, Barack Obama, The United States’ first African-American president, may very well have never been a president if his mother had chosen to abort him. She was put in a terrible situation: marital problems were ensuing that would result in the abandonment of her husband, and she herself would be left struggling to raise her son. But, if she were to have gotten an abortion at the time she found out she was pregnant, President Obama would have never had the opportunity to excel in life and become the nation’s leader (Catholic Vote). Respectively, there are also many teenagers, aged 15-19, who get abortions; roughly 18% of abortions in the United States are received by them (Guttmacher). These young girls usually have similar reasons for wanting to terminate their future child’s life, albeit many also have more of an emphasis on their maturity and future or career than their elder counterparts (Guttmacher).
One day while walking through Frankenmuth, my mother had a gut feeling that she was expecting. When my parents returned home from the day’s festivities my mom snuck away to take a pregnancy test, which confirmed she was in fact pregnant. According to my dad, he was surprised and very excited to be expecting. My parents had long been trying to start their family but had suffered a miscarriage 8 weeks into their first pregnancy. Due to the prior miscarriage, my parents decided to use caution and wait until they made it through the first trimester to share the news with friends and family. My mother went on to explain that pregnancy changed everything for her from her diet to her daily activities. Both of my parents
Prior to entering this class, I had a limited awareness of prenatal and early developmental characteristics of a person. While the population I prefer working amongst are those in adolescence through early adulthood years, I have come to find prenatal care to be a huge factor in determining and relating to this population later in life. This class has not only increased my knowledge of early development but has increased my awareness and sheer fascination behind the importance of the level of care received by a person in their mother’s womb, especially when it involves how they succeed in later stages of life.
This question has been posed by many philosophers, religious leaders and psychologists for centuries, yet has been a potent taboo in society even today. As the field of psychology is gaining ground and knowledge in how behaviors affect the way in which we interact with others, we are discovering new ways to approach and view the mental processes of a human and apply them to how a person grieves that loss. But while oft times those assumptions, hypothesis, and theories are made by adults for adults, the child is a more difficult subject in which to study since it has not achieved its mature mental
Perinatal loss can be one of the most traumatic and painful experience a mother and family can go through. The aim of this paper is to explore Swanson’s Middle Range caring theory and its application in family centered care when dealing with clients experiencing a perinatal loss.
Many women choosing to have an abortion are unaware of the psychological effects it will have on them. Many are affected for years or maybe even lifetime after the procedure. Abortion can affect each woman differently, some claim that abortion has negative effects on women’s mental health. Women have abortions for different reasons within different personal, social, economic, and cultural contexts. All of these may lead to variability in women’s psychological reactions following the abortion. This paper will focus on answering the following questions:
Ethics can be defined as a set of principles which dictate what is considered as morally ‘good’ and ‘bad’. Abortion is defined as the deliberate termination of a human pregnancy through a medical procedure which results in the death of a fetus. Within ethics, there are many arguments as to whether abortion should be permitted in society as many regard it as an act of murder and others simply see it as a decision that should be given to the mother only. The issue of abortion remains to be one of the most controversial topics in society, which causes an inevitable clash of opinion. Through the exploration of philosophical principles, we are able to evaluate the origins of such opinions. In the same way, utilitarianism equates wrongness or blameworthiness of an action with its resultant pain or unhappiness. The central principle of utilitarianism expresses the belief that actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. Since utilitarianism differentiates ethical and unethical actions on the basis of the outcomes of those actions, it falls into the consequentialist class. With this belief, utilitarianism challenged traditional views that abortion was an 'evil ' act, arguing instead that the end justifies the means. In contrast, the deontologist would consider the intent of the person seeking an abortion in evaluating its ethical standing. In addition to this, postmodernism argues that, since there is
Pregnancy is meant to be an exciting happy time; not only for the mother, but for the whole family and friends. So, when a woman miscarries, the psychological impact/ trauma is unbearable and very devastating. The experience and feeling of loss, grief, guilt, and shame caused by a miscarriage can take a toll on everyone. These feelings can also turn into a major depression in some women and possible questions of what could have I done differently, or feeling like you had a hand it in can start to surface.
According to London et al. (2014), stillbirth is defined as the “death of a fetus or infant from the time of conception through the end of the newborn period 28 days after birth” (p. 481). In 2011, in the country of Taiwan, there were a total of 2,321 stillborn births and it was reported that 60% of the women who experienced this loss suffered from severe postpartum depression within 4 years (Tseng, Chen, & Wang, 2014, p. 219). Although it is known that the mothers of these infants suffer with traumatic stress, follow-ups after stillbirths are rare and there is no community support groups available. There is not much information available on the experience of Taiwanese women who experience a stillbirth nor is there information about the steps taken by these women to recover from their loss. Thus, this study seeks to understand the experiences of these Taiwanese women who have experienced the loss of an infant and how they cope within their society (Tseng et al., 2014, p. 219).
Becoming a father is a life changing experience. Most fathers will remember that one special day for the rest of their lives, while other fathers say the day their child was born was the day their life as they knew it was over. After sitting down and interviewing three different fathers who had three very different experiences before and after child birth my eyes have been opened to the multiple views, experiences, memories, and feelings these three gentlemen have experienced or will soon experience. Mr. Snyder who is currently awaiting the birth of his first child in the spring of 2015 was the first man I interviewed. Mr. Celso is the second man I interviewed. Mr. Celso and his wife experienced a very emotional and nerve wrecking pregnancy and birth of their two 4 month old twins. Lastly, Mr. Shipley was the last man I interviewed. Mr. Shipley is a father of a one year old boy. Mr. Shipley’s experience of the birth of his child was much different then the other two gentlemen given that Mr. Shipley and the mother of his son are not in any type of relationship, nor were they during their child’s birth. Each of these men shared a lot of similarities as well as an abundance of differences regarding their children and soon to be children.