CLINICAL RESEARCH
Impact of Prior Perinatal Loss on Subsequent Pregnancies

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Objective

To evaluate the influence of previous perinatal loss on depressive symptoms, pregnancy‐specific anxiety, and prenatal attachment for parents during subsequent pregnancies.

Design

Cross‐sectional, survey design.

Participants

Forty expectant couples who experienced a prior perinatal loss.

Measures

Influence of loss (Impact of Event Scale [IES]), depressive symptoms (Center for Epidemiologic Studies–Depression Scale [CES‐D]), pregnancy‐specific anxiety (Pregnancy Outcome Questionnaire [POQ]), and prenatal attachment (Prenatal Attachment Inventory [PAI]).

Results

Mothers reported higher levels of depressive symptoms, pregnancy‐specific anxiety, and prenatal attachment than fathers did. Forty‐five percent of mothers and 23% of fathers had CES‐D scores greater than or equal to 16 indicating high risk for depression. Eighty‐eight percent of mothers and 90% of fathers reported elevated stress related to the prior loss (IES scores greater than or equal to 19). The impact of the previous perinatal loss was moderately correlated with depressive symptoms as well as pregnancy‐specific anxiety. There was no relationship between the psychological distress in pregnancy after perinatal loss and prenatal attachment.

Conclusions

The extent to which the impact of the prior loss increased parents’ stress in the current pregnancy influenced their psychological distress. These findings should heighten awareness of the mixture of hope and fear expectant parents experience during pregnancies subsequent to perinatal loss.

Section snippets

Research Design and Sample

The research being reported here is part of a larger study that compared emotional distress during pregnancy for expectant parents (both mothers and fathers) with and without a history of prior perinatal loss (Armstrong, 2002). A cross-sectional survey design was used to collect data during a single telephone interview in which both mothers and fathers independently responded to the study questionnaire. Study procedures were explained, and verbal consent was given before data collection.

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