Introduction: Perinatal death severely affects parents since they became attached to their
child already in the womb. It is important that mourners receive careful support at such times
in and out of the clinical setting. Many parents resort to an online form of support. Support
groups bring together people who have common interests, relate to a common theme. Parents
find support in such groups, discussing with other parents who have had a similar
experience. Purpose: The purpose of the thesis was to investigate what kind of support
online support groups offer to parents who have lost a child in the perinatal period and to
what extent this type of support is helpful to parents. We were also interested in support
received in and out of the clinical setting. Methods of work: A descriptive method of work
which included a systematic review of the literature was first used in the diploma thesis. A
quantitative research approach was used in the empirical part of the thesis. Data collection
was conducted using our own survey questionnaire. The data was collected in an
unsystematic way on the social network Facebook. The sample of study participants
included parents with experience of perinatal child death. Results: Partner support helped
or helped a lot to 61 % of participants. In the clinical setting, parents received little support,
with 26 % of parents receiving no support at all in the delivery room. In terms of
understanding the loss, the partner again proved to be the most understanding, while the least
understanding were the relatives and the employer. Parents joined the online support group
for various reasons: 33 % of parents to overcome the loss, 19 % for information, 18 % to
support and help others. In 74 %, parents were satisfied or very satisfied with the support
received in the online group. They were most satisfied with the informational support and
least with the social support. To a large extent, the online support group helped the parents
to overcome their loss. The online support group was not helpful at all to only 4 % of the
participating parents. Discussion and conclusion: The results indicate a lack of support in
the clinical environment, so additional training of health professionals in this area is
important. Online support groups have proven to be effective since they provide the parents
with informational, emotional and social support.
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