The grief response in the partners of women who miscarry

Abstract

Research over the last two decades has revealed that significant psychological effects may ensue for women who suffer spontaneous abortion. The psychological impact on their male partners has been largely overlooked. This paper examines the psychological impact on the male partners of 126 British women who suffered miscarriage. Higher than anticipated levels of grief and stress were found on the Perinatal Grief Scale and the Impact of Events Scale respectively, indicating that these men were strongly affected by the miscarriage. The duration of the pregnancy prior to miscarriage, and the experience of confirmatory imaging of the foetus via routine ultrasound scan, were factors related to raised levels of grief and stress. A small number of semi-structured interviews appeared to confirm that some men displayed symptoms of Bowlby's (1961) first stage of bereavement. These were modified by differences in the expected role behaviour of men, but in other respects were comparable to the findings of a recent study of an Australian cohort of women who miscarried (Conway, 1995).

Gender comparison of psychological reaction after miscarriage—a 1‐year longitudinal study

“…11 Our findings accord with preliminary studies by others that men are also distressed after miscarriage, 18,30 especially in the initial phase after the event. The psychometric scores, however, decreased significantly over the following year, suggesting recovery.…”

Grief Following Miscarriage: A Comprehensive Review of the Literature

“…59 In a second study using an interview format with 20 male partners, a high level of confusion as to appropriate behavior and a belief that men need to deny their own feelings of grief for their partner's sake were noted. 68 Men's grief following a miscarriage was found to be moderated by several variables, including the vividness of their imagery of the fetus based on exposure to an ultrasound scan 65,66 and length of pregnancy in one study 69 but not moderated by length of preg-BRIER 456 nancy in another. 65 An important caution when discussing distinctions between men's and women's affective reactions to miscarriage is that these differences may reflect differences in the expression of emotion generally rather than affective reactions to miscarriage per se.…”

“…Men's and women's scores were found to be comparable following miscarriage. 65,66 Comparing men's scores with test norms rather than with their female partners' scores limits the strength of the conclusion, in that time intervals since loss are not controlled. The remaining contradictory study, which found higher levels of grief in 39 men relative to their female partners soon after the miscarriage and comparable levels at 2-4 months postmiscarriage, is also limited, in this case by the small size of the sample.…”

The psychological and social consequences of miscarriage

“…A 2-year follow-up study of miscarrying women and their male partners reported that less grief, fear, loneliness and depression was reported in the men compard with the women [68]. Johnson and Puddifoot reported greater despair in men who had witnessed the ultrasound scan prior to the miscarriage, than those who had not experienced the visual information of the fetus [69]. One other qualitative study reported higher grief responses in men than women immediately after and 4 months after the miscarriage [45].…”