Guilt and shame after perinatal loss: comparing womens' experiences
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Guilt and shame after perinatal loss: comparing childless women and women who have children
IRAS ID
193501
Contact name
Lucy Fiddick
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Bath
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 3 months, 16 days
Research summary
Guilt and shame after perinatal loss: comparing childless women and women who have children.
When women experience stillbirth (death of a baby after 24 weeks of pregnancy but before birth) or death of a baby before 28 days of life (together referred to as perinatal loss), they often feel guilty and ashamed. Guilt and shame are slightly different feelings with guilt focusing on a specific action and leading to attempts to repair problems and shame focusing on the whole self leading to powerlessness and anger.
We want to understand feelings of guilt and shame and how they link to grief better. We are particularly interested in comparing the feelings of women who have at least one living child at the time they experience their loss with those who have no living children.
We aim to recruit from NHS hospitals and non-NHS websites in three groups:
1)Women who have experienced perinatal loss between 7 months and 2 years’ previously and have at least one living child.
2)Women who have experienced perinatal loss between 7 months and 2 years’ previously and have no living children.
3)Women who have a living child between 7 months and 2 years’ old who have not experienced perinatal loss. This group will be used to understand similarities and differences between women who have experienced loss and those who have not.
Participants will complete an online survey about shame and guilt, perinatal grief, depression and anxiety and answer open-ended questions. The information will be used to consider:
• Whether women who have suffered perinatal loss experience guilt and shame differently depending on whether they have living children at the time of their loss.
• The link between shame and guilt and symptoms of grief.
• How women who have suffered perinatal loss experience guilt and shame and how these feelings affect their actions.REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - Leeds West Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/YH/0326
Date of REC Opinion
26 Aug 2016
REC opinion
Unfavourable Opinion