WOMENS REACTION TO PERINATAL LOSS IN INDIA - AN EXPLORATORY, DESCRIPTIVE STUDY

Our current understanding of parental grief associated with perinatal loss is based entirely on studies conducted in the West. Physicians in India believe that these studies describe an exclusively Western phen omenon. The belief in India is that distress associated with perinatal loss results from being perceived by the family as a failure for not producing offspring, rather than from grief resulting from the loss. W e examined the psychological response of Indian women to perinatal los s by conducting interviews with nine middle-class women who had experi enced perinatal loss. Seven of the nine women experienced significant psychological distress, similar to the responses described in the West ern literature. If this finding is replicated, there may be a place fo r preventive interventions after perinatal loss in India, and possibly other non-Western countries. The limitations of preventive measures p revalent in the West are also discussed.