ABSTRACT
After outlining problems of definition, birth and death will be set into the medical context. Death at the beginning of life will be viewed in the light of the bereavement literature and I shall then trace the emergence of miscarriage, stillbirth and perinatal loss as matters of social concern. ‘Capturing the loss’ is a section based on an empirical study (Lovell 1983) which illustrates some of the issues. This is followed by a section which focuses on miscarriage. It is argued that increasing attention is being paid to the mother’s needs in respect of stillbirth and neonatal loss. These include ways to make the baby real by seeing the body, having a funeral and ‘memorialising’ the baby. However, there are conflicting interests which inhibit similar attention being paid to miscarriage. There are gaps in scriptures and other religious texts surrounding all these losses. These omissions mean that the needs of bereaved parents, from a range of religious backgrounds and cultures, are often overlooked. ‘ Religious professionals ’ is a section which takes up these issues using interview data from a recent study (Lovell 1995b). The findings have implications for practitioners in the ‘caring’ professions.
