ABSTRACT

Pregnancy Loss, Trauma and Dreams: A Qualitative and Correlational Study

Presenter Info Here

Maureen Ross
Santa Clara University

Maureen Ross, graduate student in counseling psychology at Santa Clara University, is currently researching trauma, grief and dreaming. Her work includes grief counseling at the Centre for Living with Dying and Hospice of the Valley in Santa Clara, CA. She uses art and poetry to explore the spirituality of dreaming.

Juliana T. Scalise
Santa Clara University

Juliana studied sociology as an undergraduate at UC Berkeley and is currently a graduate psychology student at Santa Clara University. Her research interests include trauma, bereavement and pregnancy loss. She recently published a study on 9/11 and is currently working on a study of perinatal bereavement and dreaming.

*(Ross & Scalise are the proposed conference presenters, however there are other paper authors. First author is Dr. Jerry Kroth, Associate Professor of Counseling Psychology in the graduate division of Santa Clara University (SCU). Other SCU graduate student paper authors: MaryLynne Garcia, Michelle Hallgren, Emilyann R. LeGrue.)

Summary of Presentation

This study of 50 women who experienced pregnancy loss is among the first empirical examinations of perinatal bereavement and dreaming. The results demonstrate how dreams appear to reflect particular grieving phases. Meaningful relationships were found between dream frequency and trauma levels. This paper proposes that dreams facilitate constructive grief processing.

Learning Objectives.

• Familiarity with common dream themes for perinatally bereaved women

• Understanding of how grief may be processed through dreams

• Knowledge of correlations between trauma and dream images for perinatally bereaved women

Evaluation questions:

• What were the three categories of dream themes for the women of this study?

• The women in this study with high trauma levels, experienced pleasant dream images to compensate for the pain experienced in their waking life. T or F 

• Are subjects who frequently dream of water more or less likely to engage in avoidant behavior regarding their loss?

Abstract 

What kinds of grief reactions are associated with perinatal loss and how are they reflected in the dream patterns of women? Perinatal losses, such as miscarriages, stillbirths and neonatal deaths, are not widely acknowledged or understood in our society. Research reports that these kinds of losses can be traumatic for expectant parents, particularly mothers, and can greatly impact couples. While research in the area of grief-related dreams and dreaming during pregnancy exists, this is among the first empirical studies of perinatal loss and dreaming.

Our study surveyed over 50 perinatally bereaved women regarding their losses. It presents a qualitative review of post-loss dreams and a correlational analysis of trauma, grief, and dream patterns as measured by the Impact of Event Scale, the Despair Subscale of the Perinatal Grief Scale, the KJP Dream Inventory, and a personal data questionnaire. Specific areas of exploration include intrusive and avoidant thoughts, emotional support and expression, therapy, marital difficulties, nightmares, dreams of death, pleasant dreams, dreams of water, dreaming in color, finding meaning in dreams, dreaming of dreaming or being unconscious, and sexuality in dreams.

     This paper proposes that dreams serve a significant and constructive role in the processing of grief for perinatally bereaved women. Many significant correlations were found. Some confirm common academic conceptions of general grieving and perinatal bereavement. Other findings support newer understandings of the relationship between processing grief and dreaming. Our subjects’ dream themes fall into categories corresponding to various phases of the grieving process. Correlational findings reveal a connection between trauma levels and the presence of conflict in dreams. Dreams appear to reflect the bereaved’s specific phase of grief, whether they are focused on confrontation with pain or making meaning of their loss. Further, the more frequently our subjects reported dreaming, the lower their trauma levels.

Future directions for research could consider the intriguing relationships this study found between marital difficulties, therapy, positive and negative dream images, and sexuality in dreams. Additionally, it would be interesting to replicate this study with perinatally bereaved fathers, various ethnic groups and other categories of bereaved.

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