ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the course of women’s mental health adjustment over the thirty month study period. It takes a longitudinal view of the data to consider patterns of change in mental health status during the course of the study with the aim of identifying and grouping the different patterns of adaptation. The patterns were grouped into three general categories: no distress, intermediate distress and enduring distress. The chapter draws on the qualitative interview data, some personal accounts of bereavement following the death of a baby are presented to provide a perspective on the women’s lived experiences of such a loss. It also focuses on the problems that women experienced in the context of their loss. Mothers who had experienced Sudden Infant Death reported the highest rates of anxiety and depression. The relatively high prevalence of anxiety among the bereaved mothers is also consistent with the highly traumatic circumstances that usually surround the death of a baby.
