Review
Scoping Review of Memory Making in Bereavement Care for Parents After the Death of a Newborn

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Abstract

Objective

To summarize and synthesize extant literature on memory making in bereavement care for parents who experience the death of a newborn and to identify opportunities for future research.

Data Sources

We conducted a systematic search of four health-related databases (MEDLINE Complete, CINAHL Complete, Embase, and PsychINFO) for original research in January 2019. We then conducted a manual search of the reference lists of all included articles and a citation search via Scopus.

Study Selection

Selection criteria initially included all original research articles available in English that related to parents’ perceptions of perinatal or neonatal palliative care or bereavement care for parents after the death of a newborn. These criteria were refined as we developed familiarity with the available literature. Our initial screening of article titles and abstracts yielded 287 articles for full-text review. After full-text analysis, we included all 25 qualitative or mixed method research articles that met selection criteria.

Data Extraction

We used a spreadsheet modeled on the Joanna Briggs Institute Review Guidelines (2015) for data extraction.

Data Synthesis

Available research was focused primarily on parents’ perceptions of care during and after the death of their newborns. Memory making interventions emerged as significant elements of the experiences of bereaved parent. Several researchers examined parents’ perceptions of specific memory making interventions, such as bereavement photography. Contact with the newborn, opportunities for caregiving, bereavement photography, and the collection or creation of mementos emerged as important elements of memory making. Parents also identified a need for guidance about each of these key strategies for memory making.

Conclusion

We identified few studies focused entirely on memory making as an intervention in the context of bereavement care for parents. However, memory making emerged as a recurring theme throughout qualitative and mixed method studies on parents’ perceptions of perinatal or neonatal end-of-life care. Further research is required to provide evidence to guide memory making interventions for bereaved parents who experience the death of a newborn.

Section snippets

Design

Scoping reviews provide a mechanism to clarify concepts, synthesize evidence, and provide focus for future research (Arksey and O’Malley, 2005, Levac et al., 2010). In particular, scoping reviews provide a way to synthesize evidence when significant complexity or heterogeneity in the literature precludes full, systematic reviews (Khalil et al., 2016). Additionally, scoping reviews allow for greater flexibility of inclusion criteria than systematic reviews, which results in a broader view of the

Study Characteristics

Of the 25 studies included in our review, most (n = 20) were qualitative and used a range of approaches, including qualitative description and thematic analysis, phenomenology, and grounded theory. Five were mixed methods studies. The quantitative components of these mixed methods studies were heterogeneous and were not focused on parents’ perceptions of memory making. Given this heterogeneity and the overall purpose of this review, we decided to exclude quantitative data; however, relevant

Discussion

Overall, the results of our scoping review provide evidence that parents valued the opportunity to spend time with their newborns while they were still alive and were grateful for the option of being present during their newborns’ deaths. Spending time with the newborn postmortem was experienced as challenging but was important to many families, whereas failure to spend time with the newborn after death was a source of regret for some families. Most researchers found that holding and touching

Rebecca Thornton, BN, RN, MNSc, is a PhD candidate in the School of Health Sciences, University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, and a lecturer in nursing, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Faculty of Health, Deakin University, Victoria, Australia.

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  • Cited by (0)

    Rebecca Thornton, BN, RN, MNSc, is a PhD candidate in the School of Health Sciences, University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, and a lecturer in nursing, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Faculty of Health, Deakin University, Victoria, Australia.

    Patricia Nicholson, RN, MEd, PhD, is an associate professor in the School of Nursing and Midwifery, Faculty of Health, Deakin University, Victoria, Australia.

    Louise Harms, BSW, MSW, PhD, is a professor and Deputy Head, Department of Social Work, University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

    The authors report no conflict of interest or relevant financial relationships.

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