Mental distress is recognised as common following perinatal loss. But often, existing literature and bereavement care standards focus on women, leaving a gap in understanding men’s grief. This qualitative study examined the emotional experiences of males from some Northern states of India, who had experienced perinatal loss, with a focus on grief disenfranchisement. Eleven participants were interviewed using a semi-structured guide. Thematic analysis unveiled themes on the intersection of religiosity and grief, social structuring of grief patterns, gender-based grieving, inhibited expression of grief in men, disenfranchisement of grief, self-focused coping, coping with the help of others, and interpersonal barriers to emotional disclosure. The findings provide valuable insights, helping mental health practitioners better understand men’s experiences of perinatal loss and develop more effective support strategies.
AkuzeJ.BlencoweH.WaiswaP.BaschieriA.GordeevV. S.KwesigaD.FiskerA. B.ThyssenS. M.RodriguesA.BiksG. A.AbebeS. M.GelayeK. A.MengistuM. Y.GeremewB. M.DeleleT. G.TesegaA. K.YitayewT. A.KasasaS.GaliwangoE.SerbanescuF. (2020). Randomized comparison of two household survey modules for measuring stillbirths and neonatal deaths in five countries: The Every Newborn-INDEPTH Study. Lancet Global Health, 8(4), 555–556. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2214-109x(20)30044-9
2.
AlbertS.BowlbyJ. (1982). Attachment and loss: Sadness and depression. Journal of Marriage and Family, 44(1), 248–250. https://doi.org/10.2307/351282
3.
AzeezS.ObstK. L.DueC.OxladM.MiddletonP. (2022). Overwhelming and unjust: A qualitative study of fathers’ experiences of grief following neonatal death. Death Studies, 46(6), 1443–1454. https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2022.2030431
BurnsS. M.MahalikJ. R. (2007). Understanding how masculine gender scripts may contribute to men’s adjustment following treatment for prostate cancer. American Journal of Men's Health, 1(4), 250–261. https://doi.org/10.1177/1557988306293380
6.
CacciatoreJ.ThielemanK.FrettsR.JacksonL. B. (2021). What is good grief support? Exploring the actors and actions in social support after traumatic grief. PLoS One, 16(5), 1–2. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0252324
7.
Cesur-SoysalG.AriE. (2022). How we disenfranchise grief for self and other: An empirical study. OMEGA - Journal of Death and Dying, 89(1), 530–549. https://doi.org/10.1177/00302228221075203
8.
CreightonG.OliffeJ. L.ButterwickS.SaewycE. (2013). After the death of a friend: Young men’s grief and masculine identities. Social Science & Medicine, 84, 35–43. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2013.02.022
9.
DasM. K.AroraN. K.GaikwadH.ChellaniH.DebataP.RasailyR.MeenaK. R.KaurG.MalikP.JoshiS.KumariM. (2021). Grief reaction and psychosocial impacts of child death and stillbirth on bereaved north Indian parents: A qualitative study. PLoS One, 16(1), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0240270
10.
DiamondD. J.DiamondM. O. (2014). Understanding and treating the psychosocial consequences of pregnancy loss. In WenzelA. (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of perinatal psychology (pp. 486–523). Oxford Academic. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199778072.013.30
DokaK. J.MartinT. L. (2014). Men don’t cry, women do: Transcending gender stereotypes of grief. Routledge. (Original work published 1999). https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315784472
15.
DueC.ChiarolliS.RiggsD. W. (2017). The impact of pregnancy loss on men’s health and wellbeing: A systematic review. BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth, 17(1), 380. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12884-017-1560-9
16.
EaglyA. H.WoodW. (2016). Social role theory of sex differences. In The Wiley Blackwell encyclopedia of gender and sexuality studies (pp. 1–3). John Wiley & Sons. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118663219.wbegss183
Fernández‐BasantaS.CoronadoC.Movilla‐FernándezM. (2022). Double‐layer masking of suffering after pregnancy loss: A grounded theory study from a male perspective. Journal of Midwifery & Women's Health, 67(4), 470–477. https://doi.org/10.1111/jmwh.13353
19.
FisherJ.HammarbergK. (2017). Psychological aspects of infertility among men. In SimoniM.HuhtaniemiI. (Eds.), Endocrinology of the testis and male reproduction (pp. 1–31). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-29456-8_46-1
20.
GrauerholzK. R.BerryS. N.CapuanoR. M.EarlyJ. M. (2021). Uncovering prolonged grief reactions subsequent to a reproductive loss: Implications for the primary care provider. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, Article 673050. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.673050
HanssonR. O.StroebeM. S. (2007). The Dual Process Model of coping with bereavement and development of an integrative risk factor framework. In HanssonR. O.StroebeM. S. (Eds.), Bereavement in late life: Coping, adaptation, and developmental influences (pp. 41–60). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/11502-003
23.
HartyT.TrenchM.KeeganO.O’DonoghueK.NuzumD. (2022). The experiences of men following recurrent miscarriage in an Irish tertiary hospital: A qualitative analysis. Health Expectations, 25(3), 1048–1057. https://doi.org/10.1111/hex.13452
KaurR. (2021). Gendered parenting and returns from children in contemporary India: A study of IIT students and their parents. Current Sociology, 70(4), 578–597. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011392121990022
26.
KroschD. J.Shakespeare-FinchJ. (2017). Grief, traumatic stress, and posttraumatic growth in women who have experienced pregnancy loss. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 9(4), 425–433. https://doi.org/10.1037/tra0000183
LevantR.RichmondK. (2007). A review of research on masculinity ideologies using the male role norms inventory. The Journal of Men's Studies, 15(2), 130–146. https://doi.org/10.3149/jms.1502.130
29.
MarkinR. D.Zilcha-ManoS. (2018). Cultural processes in psychotherapy for perinatal loss: Breaking the cultural taboo against perinatal grief. Psychotherapy, 55(1), 20–26. https://doi.org/10.1037/pst0000122
30.
MarwahS.GaikwadH. S.MittalP. (2018). Psychosocial implications of stillborn babies on mother and family: A review from tertiary care infirmary in India. Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology of India, 69(3), 232–238. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13224-018-1173-x
31.
McIntoshD. N.SilverR. C.WortmanC. B. (1993). Religion’s role in adjustment to a negative life event: Coping with the loss of a child. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 65(4), 812–821. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.65.4.812
32.
McKenzieS. K.CollingsS.JenkinG.RiverJ. (2018). Masculinity, social connectedness, and mental health: Men’s diverse patterns of Practice. American Journal of Men's Health, 12(5), 1247–1261. https://doi.org/10.1177/1557988318772732
33.
MenonS. (2017). The semiotics of parenthood in India: A lived experience. Indian Journal of Gender Studies, 24(2), 194–216. https://doi.org/10.1177/0971521517697881
34.
MuellerR. A. (2019). Episodic narrative interview: Capturing stories of experience with a methods fusion. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 18, Article 160940691986604. https://doi.org/10.1177/1609406919866044
35.
NeimeyerR. A.BurkeL. A. (2014). Loss, grief, and spiritual struggle: The quest for meaning in bereavement. Religion, Brain & Behavior, 5(2), 131–138. https://doi.org/10.1080/2153599x.2014.891253
36.
NguyenV.Temple‐SmithM.BilardiJ. (2019). Men's lived experiences of perinatal loss: A review of the literature. The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, 59(6), 757–766. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajo.13041
ObstK.DueC.OxladM.MiddletonP. (2020). Men’s grief following pregnancy loss and neonatal loss: A systematic review and emerging theoretical model. BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth, 20(1), 11. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12884-019-2677-9
39.
OommenT. K. (2017). Society, religion, and modernity in postcolonial India. In BandyopadhyayS.SenA. P. (Eds.), Religion and modernity in India (pp. 21–35). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199467785.003.0002
40.
PeralesF.KuskoffE.FloodM.KingT. (2023). Like father, like son: Empirical insights into the intergenerational continuity of masculinity ideology. Sex Roles, 88(9-10), 399–412. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-023-01364-y
RobertsL. R.AndersonB. A.LeeJ. W.MontgomeryS. B. (2012). Grief and women: Stillbirth in the social context of India. International Journal of Childbirth, 2(3), 187–198. https://doi.org/10.1891/2156-5287.2.3.187
43.
RobertsL. R.MontgomeryS.GaneshG.KaurH. P.SinghR. (2017). Addressing stillbirth in India must include men. Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 38(7), 590–599. https://doi.org/10.1080/01612840.2017.1294220
44.
RobertsL. R.MontgomeryS.LeeJ. W.AndersonB. A. (2011). Social and cultural factors associated with perinatal grief in Chhattisgarh, India. Journal of Community Health, 37(3), 572–582. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10900-011-9485-0
45.
RobertsL. R.RenatiS. J.SolomonS.MontgomeryS. (2021). Perinatal grief among poor rural and urban women in Central India. International Journal of Women’s Health, 13, 305–315. https://doi.org/10.2147/ijwh.s297292
46.
SilvermanG. S.BaroillerA.HemerS. R. (2021). Culture and grief: Ethnographic perspectives on ritual, relationships and remembering. Death Studies, 45(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2020.1851885
47.
SriramR. (2018). A global perspective on fathering. In SriramR. (Ed.), Fathering in India: Images and realities (pp. 19–34). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1715-6_2
48.
StelzerE. M.AtkinsonC.O’ConnorM. F.CroftA. (2019). Gender differences in grief narrative construction: A myth or reality?European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 10(1), Article 1688130. https://doi.org/10.1080/20008198.2019.1688130
49.
UpadhyayI. S.SrivatsaK. A.MamidiR. (2022). Towards toxic positivity detection. In KuL.-W.LiC.-T.TsaiY.-C.WangW.-Y. (Eds.), ACL anthology, proceedings of the tenth international workshop on natural language processing for social media (pp. 75–82). Association for Computational Linguistics. https://doi.org/10.18653/v1/2022.socialnlp-1.7
50.
VermaR.KhuranaN. V. (2023). Healthy masculinities and the wellbeing of young men and boys. BMJ, 380(8374), 385. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.p385
51.
VersalleA.McDowellE. E. (2005). The attitudes of men and women concerning gender differences in grief. OMEGA - Journal of Death and Dying, 50(1), 53–67. https://doi.org/10.2190/r2tj-6m4f-rhgd-c2md
52.
WingD. G.Burge-CallawayK.Rose ClanceP.ArmisteadL. (2001). Understanding gender differences in bereavement following the death of an infant: Implications of or treatment. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training, 38(1), 60–73. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-3204.38.1.60
53.
WordenJ. W. (2002). Grief counseling and grief therapy: A handbook for the mental health practitioner (3rd ed.). Springer.
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
