Intentional Parenting of Children Born After a Perinatal Loss

Abstract

This article addresses the notion of intentional parenting from the viewpoint of bereaved parents. Information comes from the authors' qualitative research with parents who experienced a perinatal loss. Parents provide a different perspective of intentionality: that of valuing their children's life as a gift and not taking their parenting responsibility lightly. Their descriptions of intentional behaviors, beginning in pregnancy, support the need for further research in the area of parenting after a loss.

Notes

*Participants from second author's study.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Joann O'Leary

Joann O'Leary has a background in nursing and preschool special education working with high risk families, as a Parent-Infant Specialist in a high risk perinatal center and is an Infant Mental Health mentor for the state of Minnesota. She is a consultant in the area of prenatal parenting, facilitates loss and subsequent pregnancy groups for Health East and is field faculty for the CEED at the University of Minnesota. Her research interests are the pregnancy following perinatal loss, raising children after a loss, and the adult child born after an infant loss. In 2005 she was awarded the Lamaze International Marjorie Karmel Award for work with Families Pregnant after a Loss. She has published over thirty articles related to prenatal parenting and how infant loss changes the experience of the pregnancy and parenting for bereaved parents.

Jane Warland

Jane Warland is a registered midwife and lecturer in nursing and midwifery at the University of South Australia. Her research interests include population health (epidemiology and health promotion), mental health (maternal and child mental health), and maternal health (midwifery). She is also active in conducting project work in the area of teaching and learning. Dr. Warland has conducted research projects using qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods. She has published a textbook, book chapters, and journal articles and has presented her research at numerous national and international seminars and conferences, including in the United States with Dr. O'Leary.