Integrated Grief Therapy for Women Survivors Of Perinatal Loss A Feasibility study

The current study aims to examine the feasibility and effectiveness of integrated grief therapy on mental health and meaning making for women survivors of perinatal loss. It will utilize a single group, pre-mid-post-follow-up design with two phases; formative and therapy phase.

The sample; women between 19 and 45 years of age, who have experienced perinatal loss in the past 12 months, will be recruited from the perinatal psychiatry services at NIMHANS, an obstetrics and gynecology (OBG) specialty hospital in Bengaluru, and from appropriate online social media platforms.

In the formative phase, women, n=5 who have survived perinatal loss will be interviewed. Themes from the interviews will be combined with a detailed literature review to compile and adapt the proposed integrated grief therapy, which will be validated by experts, n=5 in the field of perinatal medical and mental health, women’s mental health or grief therapy. In the therapy phase, a sample of n=30 consenting women who meet the inclusion criteria will be enrolled for integrated grief therapy, which includes 8 weekly individual sessions and 1 elective session for the spouse.

Select study measures will be administered at different time points; baseline, mid-intervention (after 4 sessions), post intervention, and follow-up after 8- 10 weeks. Study measures include Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K-10) for screening, antecedent measures include Adverse Childhood Experiences Questionnaire (ACE-Q), Experiences in Close Relationships Scale– Short form (ECR-S), Dyadic Adjustment Scale-7 (DAS-7), and Social Provisions Scale-5 (SPS-5), outcome measures include Perinatal Grief Scale (PGS), WHO-5 Well-being scale (WHO-5), Grief and Meaning Reconstruction Inventory (GMRI), Helpful Aspects of Therapy form as a measure of therapy process, and a measure of feasibility which is to be developed.

The findings from the feasibility study could help in planning future controlled trials and also have important clinical implications for improving psychotherapy services in diverse settings for women and couples who have survived perinatal loss.