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.

Reviews

Winner of British Sociological Association Foundation for the Sociology of Health and Illness Book Prize 2024

CHOICE: Recommended

'By shedding light on this taboo aspect of healthcare, the book provides a highly original contribution to the sociology of emotions, medical sociology, death and dying studies and science and technology studies. It is a book that I wholeheartedly recommend to further advance understanding of perinatal bereavement and post-mortem care.'
Dr Kerry Jones, Senior Lecturer in End-of-Life Care, The Open University

Introduction
1 Trauma
2 Decisions
3 Technology
4 Emotions
5 Care
6 Memory
7 Relationships
Conclusion: Life after death
References

Authors

Kate Reed is a Professor of Medical Sociology at the University of Sheffield
Julie Ellis is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology of Health and Illness at the University of Huddersfield
Elspeth Whitby is a Clinical Senior Lecturer at the University of Sheffield