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Maternal Identity Following Perinatal Loss  \nOMEGA—Journal of Death and Dying 2026, Vol. 92(3) 1559–1581  \n© The Author(s) 2023  \nArticle reuse guidelines:  \n[sagepub.com/journals-permissions](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)  \n[DOI: 10.1177/00302228231209769](DOI: 10.1177/00302228231209769)[ ](DOI: 10.1177/00302228231209769)[journals.sagepub.com/home/ome](journals.sagepub.com/home/ome)  \nLarissa Rossen 1 􀀁, Jessica E. Opie2, and Gypsy O’Dea3  \nAbstract  \nBackground: Maternal identity, a mother’s internalized view of self as mother, has not been studied in relation to perinatal loss. This study aimed to investigate how women construct a sense of maternal identity after the loss of a baby.  \nMethods: We interviewed 10 mothers who had experienced perinatal loss. A Listening Guide framework for narrative analysis was used to identify patterns of giving voice to the mother’s own story.  \nResults: We identified 12 overarching voices which fell within three distinct groupings: voices of motherhood, voices of grief, and voices of growth. Although bereaved mothers grappled with constructing their maternal identity, they also demonstrated how maternal identity is individually and intuitively created through an honouring and remembering of the child that was lost, resulting in significant growth.  \nConclusions: There is need for a broader definition of what constitutes motherhood to encapsulate diverse mothering experiences, including perinatal loss.  \n1 Department of Counselling Psychology, Trinity Western University, Langley, BC, Canada  \n2The Bouverie Centre, School of Psychology & Public Health, La Trobe University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia 3School of Psychology, Centre for Social and Emotional Early Development, Deakin University, Geelong, VIC, Australia  \nCorresponding Author:  \nLarissa Rossen, Department of Counselling Psychology, Trinity Western University, 22500 University Dr, Langley, BC V2Y 1Y1, Canada.  \nEmail: [larissa.rossen@twu.ca](larissa.rossen@twu.ca)  \nKeywords  \nmaternal identity, perinatal loss, mothers, motherhood, listening guide, qualitative method  \nIntroduction  \nPerinatal loss includes infertility during the preconception period, fetal death during pregnancy (miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, induced abortion and stillbirth) and infant death in the first year of life (neonatal or post-neonatal death; Lawn et al., 2016; Public Health Agency of Canada (2020) . The loss of a baby has profound, adverse emotional effects on bereaved parents (Burden et al., 2016; Huberty et al., 2016; Johnson & Langford, 2015), and is associated with severe anxiety, major depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, and suicidal ideation (Burden et al., 2016; Ellis et al., 2016; Heazellet al., 2016) . Following a perinatal loss, for those who go on to have subsequently healthy pregnancies, there is typically increased health care use (Hutti et al., 2011) with higher rates of anxiety (Armstrong et al., 2009; Hutti et al., 2015) and postpartum depression (Armstrong, 2007; Blackmore et al., 2011) . Prior research has considered grief responses, interventions, and lived experiences of mothers, fathers, healthcare professionals, and the wider family and community, in relation to perinatal loss. To date, the extant literature centres on parenting a living child following a perinatal loss, highlighting the connection between parenting identity with having a living child. Specifically, this literature has focussed predominantly on parenting pre-existing living children who were alive before the loss (Haylett, 2019), or on parenting subsequent children following loss (Campbell-Jackson et al., 2014; O’Leary & Warland, 2012; Warland et al., 2011) . This emphasises the existence of a living child/ren as required for individuals to be acknowledged as parents.  \nMinimal research has focussed on the role of motherhood in relation to the infant that was lost. While a small body of literature identifies the importance o","cbCaifLRPBZJ6jCa","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaifLRPBZJ6jCa","pdf",783425,23,"English","# Abstract\n## Background\n## Methods\n## Results\n## Conclusions\n# Introduction\n## Maternal identity in perinatal loss\n# Maternal Identity\n## Rubin’s concept and postpartum shift","[{\"question\":\"What was the study’s main objective about maternal identity?\",\"answer\":\"The study aimed to investigate how women construct a sense of maternal identity after the loss of a baby.\"},{\"question\":\"How was the research conducted and analyzed?\",\"answer\":\"Researchers interviewed 10 mothers who had experienced perinatal loss and used a Listening Guide framework for narrative analysis to identify patterns in how mothers gave voice to their stories.\"},{\"question\":\"What were the key findings about the voices of maternal identity?\",\"answer\":\"The study identified 12 overarching voices that clustered into three groupings: voices of motherhood, voices of grief, and voices of growth, showing growth alongside ongoing struggle with identity construction.\"}]","A Mother’s Voice - The Construction of Maternal Identity Following Perinatal Loss | PDF",1790713427,58]