By the way knowledge: Grandparents, stillbirth and neonatal death

Abstract

Over the past 50 years, academic interest in the experiences of parents who lose a baby to stillbirth or neonatal death has grown. Stillbirth is defined in the UK as the death of a baby after 24 weeks' gestation and neonatal death is death within the first 4 weeks of life. Less is known about the experience of grandparents after such an event. As grandparents might expect to play an important role in their putative grandchild's life, including the provision of childcare to support parental employment, it seems likely that the baby's death will impact upon them. We argue that existing academic knowledge of grandparents' experiences of reproductive loss is 'by the way' knowledge, garnered incidentally from other research projects, for example, losing a grandchild per se or where researchers have interviewed grandparents as part of wider family research. The experience of grandparents who lose a grandchild at or around the time of birth should not go unnoticed. Research into their experiences can inform about the place in the family, if any, that is afforded to the unborn child before birth and whether, like fathers and the siblings of babies who have died, grandparents are also 'forgotten mourners'.

Understanding the bereavement experience of grandparents following the death of a grandchild from a life‐limiting condition: A meta‐ethnography

“…Families have been shown to have a substantial influence on the bereavement experiences of grandparents; not least as they gatekeep (Reitzes & Mutran, ; Stelle, Fruhauf, Orel, & Landry‐Meyer, ) the amount and quality of contact between the grandparent and grandchild and the rest of the family. Similar findings have been reported in research surrounding stillbirths and neonatal deaths; Murphy and Jones () reported that following a neonatal death, parents distanced themselves from grandparents, due to a lack of support and understanding and feelings of intergenerational resentment (O'Leary, Warland, & Parker, ), or strengthened ties due to the support the parents received from the wider family.…”

“…Reciprocal translation provided new insights into the social positioning of grandparents in the family, highlighted by multiple participants and at varying stages throughout their experience, from recognition or diagnosis of a life‐limiting condition, to the family's bereavement. Murphy and Jones () link social positioning and identity, reporting that parents struggle with their identity following perinatal death and that there has been little research conducted on similar identity transitions to grandparenthood. Relationships in the family have shown to have a significant effect on the experiences of grandparents (Young & Dowling, ).…”

Factors Contributing to Men’s Grief Following Pregnancy Loss and Neonatal Death: Further Development of an Emerging Model in an Australian Sample

“…Challenges to providing effective support reported by men have included a lack of understanding or unhelpful comments despite well-meaning intentions [10-12, 32, 94], feeling as though they needed to support their family members through their grief [10,13,16,32,94,95], not feeling comfortable discussing their feelings with family members (where family referred to people other than their female partner) [12], and a desire for practical support (e.g., cooking, cleaning, childcare) as well as emotional support [16]. In line with research exploring the impact of pregnancy loss and neonatal death on extended family members including siblings and grandparents [96][97][98][99], this nding supports a family-centred approach to providing information and support for loss and grief, so that all family members involved in the experience of loss are better able to support one another.…”

Bereaved Grandparents-We Didn’t Know Our Part

“…As found by others [5], some reported the bereaved parents distanced themselves from family and friends. Only one family felt the loss strengthened a relationship between siblings of one of the bereaved couples.…”

“…Rather than facilitating discussion and sharing the loss [9] this grandmother was inhibited in processing her feelings. This quote can be a helpful guide for those working in the hospital or community setting with bereaved families and brings up the question who cares for the caregiver and helps them in their isolation [5]. Grandparents are often the one who cares for older siblings at home, or, as a grandmother in one of the groups did, stayed with the bereaved family for two weeks cooking meals and monitoring (at the request of the parents) who could come into the home.…”