Understanding Baby Loss - by Kate Reed & Julie Ellis & Elspeth Whitby (Hardcover)

About the Book

This book offers an in-depth sociological analysis of parent and professional experience of baby loss, examining the role that post-mortem can play in the wider context of bereavement.

Book Synopsis

This book offers a detailed and sensitive account of how parents experience different forms of baby loss, and subsequently make decisions about post-mortem examination. It also analyses some of the challenges professionals face when working in this highly sensitive field of medicine. It draws on data from an ESRC award-winning UK based study on the development of minimally invasive post-mortem to examine a range of sociologically pertinent issues relating to: 'trauma' 'emotions', 'decisions', 'care' 'technology' 'memory' and the role of 'social and biological relationships'. By shedding light on this taboo aspect of healthcare, the book provides a highly original contribution to sociology, offering a comprehensive analysis of some of the most pressing concerns in the field to date.

From the Back Cover

Understanding baby loss offers an extraordinary ethnographic exploration of the sensitive subject of baby loss and post-mortem. The book combines an in-depth sociological analysis of clinical and technological aspects of the post-mortem process with detailed understandings of parent and professional feelings, emotions and care practices. Throughout the book, the authors show that post-mortem is not just a scientific or clinical examination but, rather, forms a key part of the bereavement process. The book offers a comprehensive and thoughtful account of how parents experience different forms of baby loss, and subsequently make decisions about post-mortem examination. It also analyses some of the challenges professionals face when working in this highly sensitive field of medicine.

The book shows that post-mortem can play a crucial role in establishing cause of death and assist parents with emotional and diagnostic closure. By shedding light on this hidden and taboo aspect of healthcare, Understanding baby loss offers a valuable contribution to the sociology of emotions, medical sociology, sociology of work, death and dying studies and science and technology studies.

Review Quotes

Winner of British Sociological Association Foundation for the Sociology of Health and Illness Book Prize 2024

CHOICE: Recommended

'By shedding light on this taboo aspect of healthcare, the book provides a highly original contribution to the sociology of emotions, medical sociology, death and dying studies and science and technology studies. It is a book that I wholeheartedly recommend to further advance understanding of perinatal bereavement and post-mortem care.'
Dr Kerry Jones, Senior Lecturer in End-of-Life Care, The Open University

About the Author

Kate Reed is a Professor of Medical Sociology at the University of Sheffield
Julie Ellis is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology of Health and Illness at the University of Huddersfield
Elspeth Whitby is a Clinical Senior Lecturer at the University of Sheffield