Ritualisation and Parenthood

Sorgpraksisser hos forældre, der har mistet et spædbarn

Abstract

When a woman in a Danish maternity ward gives birth to a stillborn baby, it is common practice that the health professionals encourage the parents to see and hold the baby. Within empirical research, one will find a number of qualitative and quantitative studies of the significance of such practices regarding the continuous emotional health for the mothers, but many studies are deficient when it comes to representativity and confounding. This article relates to existing research and replenishes with a cross-disciplinary approach, consisting of sociological and cultural analyses of the paradigmatic shift of grief paradigms and the relations to the dead and the meaning of
ritualisations, as well as empirical studies of specific grief and everyday life practices carried out by bereaved parents.
The central theme is: what are the interrelations between the practices and interactions initiated by the parents and performed at the maternity wards, in the home and on online memorial sites, on children’s graves and elsewhere and what do they mean to the parents’ grief practices in the life to come?