A scoping review of therapies used to treat psychological trauma post perinatal bereavement

ABSTRACT

Background

Up to 39% of women who experience perinatal bereavement proceed to develop Post-Traumatic-Stress-Disorder (PTSD), with this large proportion meriting treatment. Before setting-up a treatment service for postnatal women who are experiencing psychological trauma, it is important to identify what therapies have been used in-the-past to address this problem.

Aim

To scope for research that has implemented therapies to treat psychological trauma post perinatal bereavement, for potential inclusion in a flexible treatment package.

Method

A scoping review mapped coverage, range, and type of research that has reported on prior therapies used to treat psychological trauma post perinatal bereavement.

Findings

Due to the dearth of papers that directly addressed perinatal bereavement, we widened the scope of the review to view what treatments had been used to treat psychological trauma post-childbirth. Out of 23 studies that report on effectiveness of therapies used to treat psychological trauma post-childbirth, only 4-focused upon treating PTSD post perinatal bereavement (3 effective/1 ineffective). Successful treatments were reported by Kersting et al. (2013), who found CBT effective at reducing PTSD symptoms post-miscarriage, termination for medical reasons, and stillbirth (n = 33 & n = 115), and Navidian et al. (2s017)) found that 4-sessions of grief-counselling reduced trauma symptoms post-stillbirth in (n = 50) women. One study by Huberty et al. (2020found on-line yoga to be ineffective at reducing PTSD symptoms post-stillbirth.

Conclusions

A dearth of research has explored effectiveness of therapies for treating psychological trauma post perinatal bereavement and post-childbirth, with need to develop and test a research informed flexible counselling package.

KEYWORDS:

• Midwives
• PTSD
• complex-PTSD
• perinatal bereavement
• miscarriage
• stillbirth
• neonatal death
• treatment
• therapy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).