University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Doctorate in Social Work (DSW) Dissertations School of Social Policy and Practice Fall 10-9-2015 Disenfranchised Grief In Postpartum Women: A Heuristic Inquiry Into Women's Lived Experience Of Loss Of The Dreamed-of Birth Rumyana P. Kudeva University of Pennsylvania,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations_sp2 Part of the Maternal and Child Health Commons, Maternal, Child Health and Neonatal Nursing Commons, Other Mental and Social Health Commons, Social Work Commons, and the Women's Studies Commons Recommended Citation Kudeva, Rumyana P., "Disenfranchised Grief In Postpartum Women: A Heuristic Inquiry Into Women's Lived Experience Of Loss Of The Dreamed-of Birth" (2015). Doctorate in Social Work (DSW) Dissertations. 72. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations_sp2/72 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations_sp2/72 For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Disenfranchised Grief In Postpartum Women: A Heuristic Inquiry Into Women's Lived Experience Of Loss Of The Dreamed-of Birth Abstract Abstract DISENFRANCHISED GRIEF IN POSTPARTUM WOMEN: A HEURISTIC INQUIRY INTO WOMEN’S LIVED EXPERIENCE OF LOSS OF THE DREAMED-OF BIRTH Rumyana P. Kudeva, MSW, LCSW Jeffrey Applegate, PhD The childbearing year is of upmost significance in a woman’s life, carrying inherent possibilities of empowerment and self-actualization. Most women create a vision of their “dreamed-of birth” that represents their beliefs about birth and their role in the process. However women’s expectations about birth are often subverted by the authoritative knowledge and practices of the Western maternity care system or by the unpredictable nature of the birth itself.