Abstract
The stillbirth rates or early neonatal death in the Czech Republic is roughly 400 per year. Coping with that difficult life event depends a lot on the support of health caregivers and their communication with clients.
The aim of the research was to determine the use and the methods of offering farewell rituals to women after perinatal loss in the Czech Republic, to determine women's attitudes to these rituals, having mementos of the baby and use of general or professional help. The group of participants consisted of 83 women who had experienced perinatal loss in the period 2007 - 2012 in the Czech Republic.
The majority of the mothers did not see the baby after the stillbirth and 69% of those mothers regretted that they did not do so. In contrast, all of women who saw thein baby after perinatal loss were glad they did so.
The essentials finding is that farewell rituals were not offered to the women in most of the cases. Actually, it may suggest that health professionals use a paternalistic approach in this area.
Only 17.5% of women kept mementos of their baby after stillbirth, 52% of participants took advantage of hte support of a self-help group, 44.5% soubyt professional help from a psychologist or a psychiatrist. More attention should be paid to the care of women following perinatal loss.