Abstract

Limited research has examined the grief experiences of fathers following neonatal death. Using a qualitative research design, ten fathers were interviewed, and thematic analysis resulted in three overarching themes: ‘A complicated grief experience: Neonatal death is highly emotional’, ‘Grief is multidimensional’ and ‘Sense of injustice’. Overall, results showed that grief was a multidimensional experience for fathers, with expressions of grief including strong feelings of anger and guilt and the manifestation of grief in physical symptoms. In addition, the findings also indicated a sense of injustice that contributed to the disenfranchisement of grief for fathers. The results of this study contribute to developing a better understanding of the grief that fathers experience following neonatal death, and can inform improvements in healthcare practices after the death of a baby in the neonatal period, including father-specific programs and adequate provision of information.

摘要

有限的研究调查了新生儿死亡后父亲的悲痛经历。使用定性研究设计，对十位父亲进行了访谈，主题分析得出了三个总体主题：“复杂的悲伤经历：新生儿死亡是高度情绪化的”、“悲伤是多维的”和“不公正感”. 总体而言，结果表明，对于父亲来说，悲伤是一种多维度的体验，悲伤的表达方式包括强烈的愤怒和内疚感，以及悲伤在身体症状中的表现。此外，调查结果还表明了一种不公正感，这种不公正感导致了父亲被剥夺了悲伤的权利。本研究的结果有助于更好地了解父亲在新生儿死亡后所经历的悲痛，并有助于改善新生儿期婴儿死亡后的医疗保健实践，包括针对父亲的计划和充分提供信息。