Systematic review of perinatal grief measures and their psychometric properties

With increasing knowledge of the impact of perinatal loss on the mental health of bereaved parents, there is a need for reliable and robust perinatal grief measures. This systematic review aimed to identify all published perinatal grief measures alongside their reported psychometric properties. A search was conducted using PubMed, PsycInfo, EMBASE & Cochrane databases from 1st January 2018 to 31st August 2024. Included articles used standardised measures to examine perinatal grief specifically, articles were excluded if measures examined general grief. Seven standardised perinatal grief measures were found and psychometric properties were reported within 34 populations. Each scale demonstrated robust psychometric properties within the populations with which they were used. This review does not identify one gold-standard measure, but offers clinicians a summary of the measures alongside their psychometric properties. The authors hope this will enable clinicians to choose the most culturally sensitive and valid perinatal grief measure for their population.