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The author gratefully acknowledges the collaboration of Professor J. M. Brandes in the preventive intervention program for caesarean birth population and the collaboration of Y. A. Bar-Maor, J. Birkhan, and J. M. Hofman, and Dr. G. Shoshany in the preventive intervention program for pediatric surgery patients and their parents. The author wishes to thank the medical and nursing staff in the obstetric, pediatric surgery, and anesthetic departments, and the operating room, who were actively involved in the implementation of the preventive intervention programs. Last but not least, the author wishes to express her appreciation to Professor Gerald Caplan for his support and guidance throughout this work.

The Perceived Personal Control Model (PPC), a novel crisis intervention model for Ceasarean Birth (C/B) populations, is used at Rambam Medical Center by medical caregivers trained in the principles of the crisis intervention model. This model tackles risk factors in the environment by manipulating such situational variables as natural and organized support systems, information, sharing the decision making process, and developing task oriented activity geared to enhance emotional, cognitive, and behavioral control. The specific objective of the intervention model is to help the C/B mother to accomplish the specific psychological tasks. The general objective is to develop a prototype model for other high risk populations. The PPC model with respect to a C/B population is discussed.

The article focuses on the specific psychological tasks of mothers who encounter neonatal death and on their adaptive and maladaptive coping patterns. Crisis intervention protocols are also discussed. These protocols, designed to minimize the emotional sequelae of pregnancy loss, are implemented by professional caregivers in charge of the target population in the general hospital setting.

The study of mothers of premature babies allows for the formulation of the specific psychological tasks that make for adaptive or maladaptive coping patterns. In line with a novel theoretical model of crisis denoted as the Perceived Personal Control Model (PPC), a preventive intervention program was implemented by medical caregivers trained in the underlying principles of the PPC model. That model as well as Social Action to facilitate the accomplishment of the adaptive psychological tasks of the target population are discussed.