IU researchers are working on a mental health screening tool to help people suffering from pregnancy loss.
Researchers say about 2 million American women experience pregnancy loss each year causing them grief, post-traumatic stress, anxiety, depression, and suicidal behaviors.
IUPUI professors Maria Brann and Jennifer Bute are the lead researchers.
Brann said it can be difficult for practitioners to know someone is dealing with grief.
“We have such a short amount of time with healthcare providers and they’re trying to potentially diagnose something else or whatever, and a lot of times this just kind of gets overlooked because that might not be the primary reason why someone is there,” Brann said.
The tool begins with five assessment questions.
“A lot of providers haven’t been trained on how to have those conversations, and so they maybe don’t know what to say to assess that,” Brann said.
People may also deal with grief years after they lose a pregnancy.
“We’ve talked with women who’ve experienced a loss 40 or 45 years ago, and they’re still grieving,” Brann said.
Read More: Graduate student government issues resolution on Kinsey Institute
There is an original scale that is used in research to learn about people who deal with grief, but Brann said it’s not the best tool.
“A couple of issues with the scale is that it does not tailor reproductive loss, so some of those questions would not be appropriate to ask someone who had experienced a reproductive loss,” Brann said.
Doctors ask questions aimed for those who experience postpartum depression, but don’t ask questions that are about miscarriage, stillbirth, or medical abortion.
Patients also might not feel comfortable talking about their mental health.
“Sometimes people just don’t know how to or don’t feel like they can talk about, either they’re embarrassed or not sure what to say, so again the tool gives us an opportunity to start that discussion,” Brann said.
Bute said usually everybody knows somebody who’s gone through this, whether they realize it or not.
“I think early pregnancy loss especially in the first trimester is actually quite common, so it might be something that healthcare providers see so often, that they’re not stopping to think about it from a patient perspective as much as maybe they could,” Bute said.
Next steps include testing the questions with more people.
This story has been updated.
