Good mothers/bad mothers: grief, morality and gender inequality in care encounters following perinatal death

When a baby dies during pregnancy or shortly after birth it can be devastating for women and their families. In Spain, perinatal bereavement care is a relatively new concept and there is a significant lack of information and research on practices in hospitals, women’s experiences of care, and the interactive processes that produce social meaning and impact grief. The research set out to address these issues. From a conceptual perspective the study views grief and concepts of pregnancy and motherhood in an interactive, socio-relational, material and historical paradigm, which draws on continuing bonds and narrative reconstruction grief theory, as well as micro-sociological concepts.