Overwhelming and unjust: A qualitative study of fathers’ experiences of grief following neonatal death

Abstract

Limited research has examined the grief experiences of fathers following neonatal death. Using a qualitative research design, ten fathers were interviewed, and thematic analysis resulted in three overarching themes: ‘A complicated grief experience: Neonatal death is highly emotional’, ‘Grief is multidimensional’ and ‘Sense of injustice’. Overall, results showed that grief was a multidimensional experience for fathers, with expressions of grief including strong feelings of anger and guilt and the manifestation of grief in physical symptoms. In addition, the findings also indicated a sense of injustice that contributed to the disenfranchisement of grief for fathers. The results of this study contribute to developing a better understanding of the grief that fathers experience following neonatal death, and can inform improvements in healthcare practices after the death of a baby in the neonatal period, including father-specific programs and adequate provision of information.

Acknowledgments

We dedicate this research to Lucas, Caleb, Charlotte, Thomas, Tristan, Odin, Fianna, Saoirse, Charlie, James and Lucy, whose fathers’ stories are told here. We sincerely thank these fathers for their honest and raw accounts of their experiences and for openly sharing their stories.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.