Luto materno e (in)satisfação conjugal na perda perinatal no terceiro trimestre de gestação

Abstract

The perinatal loss is a stressful and potentially traumatic event for most women, with individual and relational implications. The literature supports the importance of investigating the constructs perinatal loss, grief and marital (in)satisfaction. It is in the search for an understanding of this theme that this research is framed whose main objective is to study the relationship between these three variables. This study included 30 mothers of Portuguese nationality who experienced, more than six months ago, at least one perinatal loss in the third trimester of pregnancy. These responded online to a Sociodemographic, Clinical and Grief Questionnaire, the Perinatal Bereavement Grief Scale, the Inventory of Complicated Grief, the Prolonged Grief Disorder, the Impact of Event Scale – Revised, the Adult Attachment Scale of Evaluation of the Satisfaction in Areas of Married Life. The results indicated that traumatic difficulties, psychosis and depression were positive predictors of perinatal grief levels, while separation difficulties had the opposite effect. Prolonged grief was positively associated with the impact of the event (total) and its dimensions (physiological activation, intrusion and avoidance). Psychosis proved to be a positive predictor of anxiety and separation difficulties negatively predicted trust in others. In relational terms, love was a positive predictor of contact with proximity and marital functioning had the same effect on trust in others. No statistically significant differences were found in the levels of perinatal grief, complicated (total) grief and prolonged grief between single mothers and mothers in stable relationships. There was also persistence in the levels of these three variables over time. These results underline the complexity of perinatal loss and reinforce the importance of continuous psychological support

Date of Award	11 Feb 2025
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Diana Moreira (Supervisor)