Parents Experiencing Perinatal Loss: The Physician's Role.

The three cases presented in this article highlight some of the problems that family physicians encounter when their patients experience perinatal loss. By understanding the process of normal grieving, the family physician can help prevent pathological grief reactions. With cooperation from other members of the perinatal support team, the family doctor can keep parents informed, teach them about the grieving process, support them in seeing and touching the infant, arrange for photographs of the infant, discuss autopsy and funeral arrangements, and help them inform siblings.