Condemning Self, Condemning Other: Blame and Mental Health in Women Suffering Stillbirth

• DOI: 10.17744/mehc.35.4.15427g822442h11m
• Publication Date: 2015-05-18T16:53:00Z
• Authors: Joanne Cacciatore; J. Frederik Frøen; Michael Killian
• Keywords: Blame; Depression

Every year around the globe there are more than two million stillbirths, yet stillbirth is generally treated as a non-event, considered less impactful death of live-born child. In up to 60 percent third-trimester causes were attributed maternal conditions or "undetermined." As result, mothers blame themselves specific others. This analysis set out determine how attitudes 2,232 bereaved predict their mental health outcomes measuring depressive and anxious symptoms with Hopkins Symptom Checklist (HSCL). Of women sampled, 24.6% reported blaming themselves, 42.3% elevated HSCL mean scores. Self-blame in particular correlated anxiety depression. Multivariate analyses predicting scores demonstrated importance time after death, level education, abuse during pregnancy models, did self-blame Controlling for other demographic pregnancy-related variables, was strongest predictor poor outcomes. Implications counselors discussed.