Reproductive loss, sometimes reproductive grief, describes a potential emotional response to unsuccessful attempts at human reproduction or family-building. These experienced losses may include involuntary
childlessness generally,
pregnancy loss from all causes (including ectopic pregnancy, spontaneous abortion, induced abortion, and traumatic injury),
perinatal death,
stillbirth
Stillbirth is typically defined as fetal death at or after 20 or 28 weeks of pregnancy, depending on the source. It results in a baby born without signs of life. A stillbirth can result in the feeling of guilt or grief in the mother. The term ...
,
infecundity and
infertility
Infertility is the inability of a person, animal or plant to reproduce by natural means. It is usually not the natural state of a healthy adult, except notably among certain eusocial species (mostly haplodiploid insects). It is the normal state ...
from all causes (including voluntary, coerced or accidental sterilization, and post-menopausal infertility), failed attempts to conceive, failed fertility treatments, failed gestational surrogacy procedures, and losses related to all dimensions of the adoption process. Responses to miscarriage, stillbirth,
selective reduction
Selective reduction is the practice of reducing the number of fetuses in a multiple pregnancy, such as quadruplets, to a twin or singleton pregnancy. The procedure is also called multifetal pregnancy reduction. The procedure is most commonly don ...
and neonatal death are a subtype of reproductive loss called
perinatal bereavement
Perinatal bereavement or perinatal grief refers to the emotions of the family following a perinatal death, defined as the demise of a fetus (after 20 weeks gestation) or newborn infant (up to 30 days after birth). Despite the not-uncommon circumsta ...
.
Reproductive loss is categorized as a
non-definite loss that elicits as unique grief response and can be prone to social
grief disenfranchisement. Responses to reproductive loss may be gender-specific.
However, per the ''Journal of Social Philosophy'', processing these experiences is complicated by the lack of "settled cultural—or philosophical—understanding of what exactly is bad or grief-worthy about the death of an embryo/fetus or the failure of a pregnancy to produce a surviving child." Perinatal losses have been described as uniquely ambiguous in that they are "loss of a future with a family member who has not yet been integrated into family life yet maintains a psychological presence within the family system." The ambiguity of the reproductive loss may be central to its experience of the bereaved;
Maureen Corrigan called stillbirth a "nightmare that hasn't been quite categorized."
Scholarship in the journal ''Social Work'' has argued that reproductive losses can be "significant life course events that may affect identity, social role, self-image, and conceptualization of a woman's reproductive history and human sexuality across the entire range of practice settings."
L. Serene Jones of
Yale Divinity School found that both American mainline Protestant and feminist communities had little discourse on the concept of reproductive loss or grief.
Late-term fetal demise has been found to be a risk factor for
post-traumatic stress disorder in formerly pregnant women.
Creative works about reproductive loss include the
''Up'' opening sequence, the film ''
Private Life Private Life may refer to:
*life in the private sphere The private sphere is the complement or opposite to the public sphere. The private sphere is a certain sector of societal life in which an individual enjoys a degree of authority, unhampered by ...
'', the painting
''Henry Ford Hospital'', and the memoir ''
An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination
''An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination'' is a 2008 memoir by the novelist Elizabeth McCracken of a full-term pregnancy that ended in a stillbirth. Maureen Corrigan of NPR's '' Fresh Air'' named it one of the best books of 2008, abou ...
''.
See also
*
Reproductive privilege
Reproductive privilege is a form of social privilege that describes people who have been able to regenerate themselves biologically and produce new generations with an unremarkable level of difficulty. People with a reproductive disadvantage (inclu ...
*
Miscarriage and grief
Miscarriage and grief are both an event and subsequent process of grieving that develops in response to a miscarriage. Almost all those experiencing a miscarriage experience grief. This event is often considered to be identical to the death of a ...
*
''Shidu'' (bereavement)
* ''
Mizuko kuyō
meaning "water child memorial service", is a Japanese Buddhist ceremony for those who have had a miscarriage, stillbirth, or abortion. It is also practiced in Thailand and China. This practice has become particularly visible since the 1970s wit ...
''
*
Gender disappointment
References
{{psych-stub
Grief
Human reproduction