Congenital loss: Loss of an immediate family member prior to or during one's birth

The loss of a family member is often conceptualized as a disruption in one's life story. However, when a loss occurs prior to, or during, one's birth, the bereaved life stories are not interrupted by the loss, but rather begin with loss. The paper offers a new conceptualization of these lo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Death studies 2023, Vol.47 (8), p.914-925
Main Authors: Mahat Shamir, Michal, Pitcho-Prelorentzos, Shani, Leichtentritt, Ronit D.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Death
Family
Humans
Qualitative Research
Siblings
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Summary:The loss of a family member is often conceptualized as a disruption in one's life story. However, when a loss occurs prior to, or during, one's birth, the bereaved life stories are not interrupted by the loss, but rather begin with loss. The paper offers a new conceptualization of these losses as "congenital losses" and captures the core aspects of this phenomenon. A qualitative phenomenological analysis of 34 in-depth semi-structured interviews with offspring and siblings whose family members died before/during their birth revealed four main challenges presented by congenital loss: incoherency and fragmentation; story-ownership; bond-establishment, and; identity challenges.
ISSN:0748-1187
1091-7683
DOI:10.1080/07481187.2022.2142328