Chapter 14: Doctor-Patient Relationship in the Face of Grief/Mourning: The Case of Gestational Losses

Pregnancy represents, for most women, the experience of a period of waiting, for an event which is somehow imagined and expected (personally and socially) to happen, with a predictable ending: the birth of a new life. However, for some women, the relatively predetermined course between conception and childbirth suffers an unexpected interruption, and, instead of life, death is present. In some cases, the experience of death is constant, occasioning the experience of several other meaningful losses: not only that of the “baby,” but also the loss of an idealized type of family, the loss of the mother’s social role and the loss of a certain control over the woman’s own body and life. The relationship between pregnant women and health professionals assumes a still more evident relevance, concerning the various and complex dimensions present in such a nonnormative personal and social context, and in particular, mourning and grief processes.