'Head-hunting' (or grief management) on Teesside: Pregnancy loss and the use of counselling as a ritual in the resolution of consequential grief

Abstract

This anthropological thesis is based on an evaluation carried out at South Cleveland Hospital on Teesside, where midwives offer counselling to bereaved parents following pregnancy loss. Both quantitative and qualitative methodologies are utilised in the form of individual case studies, patient focus groups, and a standardised questionnaire distributed to medical professionals. The purpose of the evaluation is to ascertain the efficiency and efficacy of the service, the advantages or disadvantages of the service being administered by midwife/counsellors, and how any subsequent service might be improved upon. Given the fact that pregnancy loss was considered linguistically taboo until only a few years ago, the anthropological interest in the study examines the shift in emotional reaction to pregnancy loss in western culture and the role of counselling in grief management following a loss. The work draws upon the expertise of several authors who have written on the issues concerning historical and cross cultural characteristics of pregnancy loss, the therapeutics of counselling in grief management, embodiment, narrative theory, performance, and the use of ritual in the creation of new social and cultural practices. It is concluded from the study that counselling is a ritual of post-modern times, the efficacy of which might depend upon clients' opportunity to 'perform' a ritual of any kind, rather than on the qualities inherent in a specific ritual such as counselling or headhunting, in accordance with Rosaldo (1993;4-6).