‘My biggest fear is that people will forget about him’: Mothers' emotional transitions after terminating their pregnancy for medical reasons

Abstract

Aims and objectives:To explore women's emotional responses throughout the process of terminating a pregnancy for medical reasons.Background: Making the choice to terminate a desired pregnancy for medical reasons has a negative impact on women's health, as it is a distressing process that involves making hard decisions and readjusting one's expectations of an idealised pregnancy.Methods: A qualitative phenomenological study was conducted following the COREQ checklist. Fifteen semi-structured interviews and two focus groups were conducted with women who had terminated their pregnancies for medical reasons, previous to and during the COVID-19 lockdown. Subsequently, we analysed the content.Results: One main category, emotional journey during the process of terminating the pregnancy, and six subcategories were identified: (I) representation and desire to become a mother, (II) main concerns, (III) impact of the news, (IV) decision-making, (V) emotional responses before termination for medical reasons and (VI) emotional responses after termination for medical reasons. All contributed to understanding the specificities of the different phases that make up the emotional journey of terminating a pregnancy for medical reasons. Conclusions:The findings of this study suggest that there are a number of predominant emotions that professionals need to be aware of in order to help women work through them and lessen the impact of pregnancy termination on their mental health. COVID-19 had different connotations depending on the women's experiences.Relevance to clinical practice: Our results highlight how important the role of healthcare staff is in caring for these women and their partners, which involves recognising their emotions throughout the process. Our results also underline how useful it is to conduct qualitative studies in this context, since they constitute a set of activities and interventions that result in the administration of nursing care in itself.

“You Are in the Middle of a Road, a Road With No End”: Experiences of Women Who Underwent Medical Termination of Their Pregnancies

“…According to our participants, medical termination was the most challenging decision they had ever made. Research shows that medical termination adversely affects women's psychosocial well-being and causes them to experience depression, 15 posttraumatic stress disorder, 16 anxiety and guilt, 10 fear, 17 sleep and nutrition problems, 18 and loneliness and isolation. 19 As a consequence of the medical termination of a planned pregnancy, women and their family members experience the loss of a potential new family member.…”

Framing Personal Experiences in U.S. Media Outlets: Critical Analysis of Termination of Pregnancy for Fetal Anomalies

“…Several studies examined the decision-making process patients (and their partners) Ramos et al, 2022;and Qin et al, 2019. There also was a third group focused on coping mechanisms, as seen in the studies by Guy, 2022 andSmith et al, 2021. Three studies -Goldblatt Hyatt & McCoyd, 2022;Kerns et al, 2018;and Qin et al, 2019 also sought to develop guidelines or frameworks with varying goals to improve how clinicians support patients and partners who must navigate a diagnosis of fetal anomaly and decide for or against TFA.…”