Perinatal Bereavement Rituals and Practices Among U. S. Cultural Groups

ISBN-13: 9783031472022 / Miękka / 2024 / 435 str.

Spis treści

I Overview of Perinatal Death Rituals

Chapter 1: Overview of Perinatal Death in the U.S.

A.      Introduction

B.      Stats

C.      Definitions and classification of pregnancy and infant loss (miscarriage, stillbirth, neonatal death)

D.     Parent experiences of perinatal loss

a.      difference between unexpected vs anticipated loss

b.      grief & bereavement

c.       role of infertility

d.      pregnancy after loss

E.      Standard care of parents with perinatal loss

F.       Bereavement Care

Chapter 2: Theory and Meaning of Death Rituals

A.      Definition:  rituals, rites, ceremonies, memorials, memory-making and keepsakes

B.      Roles of death rituals:  honoring/celebrating the life of deceased, providing for decency in preparation of the body, preparing them for the afterlife, bringing together community, remembering, solace, continuing bonds, praising God

C.      Birth celebration and incorporation rituals

a.      Examples: baptism, 30-day feast

b.      When these rituals don’t happen due to death

D.     Theories that inform death rituals after infant loss

a.      Rites of passage, liminality, cushioning of transitions

b.      Fetal personhood and moral status as it relates to rituals (baptism, celebrations of life deferred)

c.       View of death in broader culture (little experience with death/dead bodies)

d.      Attachment theories

e.      Tasks of Pregnancy

f.        Bereavement theories

E.      Secular vs religious rituals

F.       Rituals as parenting

G.     Timing and Categories of death rituals

a.      During pregnancy

                i.      Creating memories (heartbeat recordings, photography)

b.      During Labor and Delivery

c.       In stillbirth

d.      In a short life: time from delivery to death

e.      During dying moments

f.        After death

                     i.      Holding, making memories, rituals “in the moment”

                     ii.      Preparing of body prior to transfer (bathing, dressing, photography)

                     iii.      Transfer of body to funeral home

                    iv.      Funeral home processing of body

1.      Full body preparation for burial (bathing, shrouds, embalming, clothing, makeup)

2.      Cremation

3.      Natural burial

g.       Caskets, urns, shrouds, casket “goods”

h.      Cemetery interment, scattering or holding of remains

i.        Wakes:  Viewing/Vigils/Calling Hours

j.        Funerals & Memorial services

k.       Mourning rituals (immediate and long-term)

l.        Creation of keepsakes, remembering and giving back

m.    Community memorials

II Common Death Rituals and Practices in Major US Cultures after Perinatal Loss

 

Format for each chapter includes at least:

Cultural history in America

Overview of religion and core beliefs

-       Sacred text

-       Deity, etc.

-       Important/relevant holidays related to death

Perspectives on death:

- the body

- the soul

- fetal and infant personhood

- afterlife beliefs (heaven, reincarnation, etc.)

Important processes/rituals:

-       before death (baptism, sacrament of the sick, etc)

-       during the dying process

-       after death: preparation of the body

-Burial vs cremation

-Funeral or memorial practices

-Mourning practices

Erin Denney-Koelsch with co-authors below

 

 

Chapter 3: European American

a.      Catholic/Orthodox

b.      Protestant Christian

c.       Amish/Mennonite

d.      Unitarian Universalist

 

Chapter 4:  Jewish American

e.      Orthodox

f.        Reform

g.       Conservative

h.      secular

 

Chapter 5:  African American

i.        Baptist

j.        Methodist Episcopal

k.       Pentecostal?

l.        Caribbean?

m.    Others?

n.      secular

Chapter 6:  Latinx American

Chapter 7: Native American/Indigenous

Chapter 8:  Asian American

o.      Buddhist

p.      Hindu

Chapter 9 Muslim American

III Planning and Supporting families through rituals 

Chapter 10:  Interdisciplinary Health Care Team

a.      Roles of Interdisciplinary Team members

                                                  i.      Physicians (Ob/MFM, neonatology, specialists)

                                                 ii.      Nurses

                                               iii.      Social work

                                               iv.      Chaplain

                                                 v.      Child life

                                               vi.      Music therapy

                                             vii.      Art therapy

                                           viii.      Palliative care team

                                               ix.      Home care and hospice

                                                 x.      Hospital morgue and funeral director

b.      Interdisciplinary teamwork for rituals

Theme: “Whatever the parents want”

c.       Rituals to care for the care team

                                                  i.      Theme: Memory boxes as a ritual

                                                 ii.      Memorial services

                                               iii.      Memorial sites, events

Chapter 11:  Community Supports in Perinatal Loss & Bereavement

a.                  Funeral Directors & mortuaries

b.                  Cemeteries

c.                   Clergy

d.                  Musicians

e.                  Death doula

f.                    Artists and Photographers (NILMDTS, pregnancy photos)

g.                   Support Groups

h.                  Mental health providers

i.                    Social media

j.                    Community memorials and events

k.                   Organizations that support (March of Dimes, Tears, Share, PLIDA…)

Chapter 12:  How To Plan and Support Families through Rituals and Memory-Making

a.      Consideration of setting (hospice, home, etc)

b.      Rituals/ Celebrations of life before death

c        Rituals during dying process

                                                  i.      music, holding, bathing, dressing, feeding, etc

d.       After death

                                                  i.      Spending time

                                                 ii.      Co-creating rituals “in the moment”

e.      Preparation of memory boxes, keepsakes and “linking objects”, photos

                                                  i.      Examples and how-to

1.      Hand and footprints

2.      Hand and foot molds

3.      Photography

4.      Locks of hair

5.      Art projects

i.        Preparation and handling of the body

                                               

f.        Transition to funeral home

                                                  i.      Morgue

1.      Need for post-mortem/autopsy

2.      Medical examiner cases

                                                 ii.      Bypassing morgue

g.       Funeral home preparations and decision-making

                                                  i.      Cremation vs burial

                                                 ii.      Choosing an urn or casket

                                               iii.      Planning for interment or ashes

h.        Funeral and Memorial service planning

                                                  i.      Religious rituals

                                                 ii.      Music

                                               iii.      Readings

                                               iv.      Eulogies

i.    Mourning period and bereavement

a.                  Role of rituals in bereavement

b.                  Rituals affect long-term bereavement.

                                                                          i.      It’s never too late to do a ritual.

                                                                         ii.      Rituals as parenting

a.      Long-term benefit of creation of memories and keepsakes

b.      Pregnancy after loss

j.      Giving back as a memorial ritual

                                                  i.      Donations

                                                 ii.      Organ and tissue donation

                                               iii.      Milk donation

                                               iv.      Support groups

                                                 v.      Individual memorials (trees, gardens, benches)

                                               vi.      Group memorials (spaces and events)

                                             vii.      Bereaved parents becoming a bereavement counselor or clinician

                                           viii.      Contributing to research

O autorze

Dr. Denney-Koelsch is a palliative care physician at University of Rochester who cares for families facing serious illnesses across the age spectrum. Her research and scholarship has focused on the care of families with prenatal diagnoses of life-limiting fetal conditions through pregnancy, labor and delivery, birth, and the neonatal period. She is author of 15 peer-reviewed publications, nearly all on this topic. She was also Co-Editor for the book Perinatal Palliative Care: A Clinical Guide, published by Springer in 2020. She co-authored five of the chapters in that book. She is a regular speaker in perinatal palliative care both at national meetings and as invited speaker for other institutions.  She was the recipient of the Hastings Center-Cuniff Dixon Award for Early Career Physicians in 2018 for exemplary end-of-life care and was chosen as an Emerging Leader by the American Academic of Hospice and Palliative Medicine in 2021.

Blurb

Death rituals are a universal feature of every human culture across the world. Every human must eventually face the stark reality of death, and many cultures and religions have sought to make sense of death and bring solace to the people through bereavement rituals. Infant death has been commonplace in most of human history. Despite the high prevalence of pregnancy loss (25% of all pregnancies) and infant death (0.6% of liveborn infants), these deaths are rarely discussed openly.  The parents’ grief often is underestimated or ignored by their social network who may never have met the baby and/or feel uncomfortable discussing the loss of a child. On the other hand, the families enduring perinatal loss experience profound grief, loss of the actual and imagined future for that child, and the baby is never forgotten. Thus, parents seek to have their baby remembered through the creation of keepsakes, memories, and rituals. Having a supportive environment that honors their loss and their child’s memory and helps to facilitate meaningful rituals can have a profound effect on their long-term bereavement.

There is a large amount of literature on death rituals across cultures but most books include infants only briefly and miscarried or stillborn babies are not mentioned at all. This text seeks to fill this substantial gap through review of existing literature paired with dozens of interviews with clinicians and caregivers across many disciplines in the hospital and community as well as bereaved family members who have gone through perinatal loss.

The authors recruited in Bereavement Rituals after Pregnancy Loss or Infant Death across U.S. Cultures are a broad group of experts that include clinicians in palliative care and perinatal bereavement, nurses and clergy from different religious groups. The book is broken up into three main sections. The first provides a history and theoretical basis for perinatal death rituals.  The second includes an overview of common beliefs and practices in major US religious and cultural groups. The third focuses on the roles of the health care team members and offers a practical how-to guide for health care providers to support families through rituals that fit their personal values and needs.