Psychological aspects of intrauterine death. Research, experiences and guidelines - Stillbirth is a dramatic event: in Italy 2000 families every year lose their babies in the second part of the pregnancy. Stillbirth is a real grief, very similar for psychological characteristics, mourning process and impact to other types of loss. Moreover, bereaved parents are not encouraged by society to share and express grief. Perinatal loss is still a difficult topic to manage, and many people simply ignore perinatal grief. Sometimes even caregivers are not formed on the issue of perinatal loss and very often parents do not receive any form of psychological support; the lack of support or an inadequate assistance are linked to bad coping in parents and can increase the risk of complicated grief. CiaoLapo charity since 2007 has been involved in a project on perinatal loss support with Careggi General hospital (Florence), in order to provide support to the staff and to the bereaved parents. An important part of this project was the creation of guidelines for supporting parents during every phase of grieving process in order to improve assistance. Aim of this study is to share this experience and describe the guidelines in the framework of the recent body of literature on psychological aspects of perinatal loss.
Keywords: Intrauterine Death; Grief; Guidelines; Pregnancy; Delivery.

Claudia Ravaldi, Giorgio Mello, Valentina Pontello, Leonardo Rimediotti, Valdo Ricca, Alfredo Vannacci, in "PSICOBIETTIVO" 3/2009, pp. 121-139, DOI:10.3280/PSOB2009-003006