Understanding Baby Loss: The Sociology of Life, Death and Post-Mortem - Softcover

Reed, Professor Kate; Ellis, Julie; Whitby, Elspeth

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1526191563 ISBN 13: 9781526191564

Publisher: Manchester University Press, 2025

Synopsis

This book offers a detailed and sensitive account of how parents experience different forms of baby loss, and subsequently make decisions about post-mortem examination. It also analyses some of the challenges professionals face when working in this highly sensitive field of medicine. It draws on data from an ESRC award-winning UK based study on the development of minimally invasive post-mortem to examine a range of sociologically pertinent issues relating to: ‘trauma’ ‘emotions’, ‘decisions’, ‘care’ ‘technology’ ‘memory’ and the role of ‘social and biological relationships’. By shedding light on this taboo aspect of healthcare, the book provides a highly original contribution to sociology, offering a comprehensive analysis of some of the most pressing concerns in the field to date. -- .

About this title

About the Author

Kate Reed is a Professor of Sociology at the University of Manchester
Julie Ellis is a Research Associate at the University of Sheffield
Elspeth Whitby is a Clinical Senior Lecturer at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

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From the Back Cover

Understanding baby loss offers an extraordinary ethnographic exploration of the sensitive subject of baby loss and post-mortem. The book combines an in-depth sociological analysis of clinical and technological aspects of the post-mortem process with detailed understandings of parent and professional feelings, emotions and care practices. Throughout the book, the authors show that post-mortem is not just a scientific or clinical examination but, rather, forms a key part of the bereavement process. The book offers a comprehensive and thoughtful account of how parents experience different forms of baby loss, and subsequently make decisions about post-mortem examination. It also analyses some of the challenges professionals face when working in this highly sensitive field of medicine.

The book shows that post-mortem can play a crucial role in establishing cause of death and assist parents with emotional and diagnostic closure. By shedding light on this hidden and taboo aspect of healthcare, Understanding baby loss offers a valuable contribution to the sociology of emotions, medical sociology, sociology of work, death and dying studies and science and technology studies.

Edition details

• Publisher: Manchester University Press
• Publication date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1526191563
• ISBN 13: 9781526191564
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 248