The effect of stillbirth and late termination of pregnancy on the emergence of post-traumatic symptoms among attending medical personnel

The purpose of this paper was to assess the impact and the post-traumatic potential of late termination of pregnancy (TOP) and stillbirth on medical staff and characterise personal attributes that modulate these possible outcomes. Fifty-one participants involved in the treatment of women undergoing late TOPs and stillbirths answered questionnaires including demographics, Neuroticism subscale of the Big Five Inventory (BFI), Life Orientation Test-Revised (LOT-R), Posttraumatic Diagnostic Scale (PDS), Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI-18) and questions regarding exposure to stillbirths and late TOPs. None of the participants met the full post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) criteria. A correlation with a marginal significance was found between the number of TOP's/stillbirths attended during the past year and traumatic symptoms. Neuroticism moderated the association between presence in TOP's/stillbirths and post-traumatic symptoms among those who attended this event over the past month. According to our results, medical personnel do not appear to develop long-term and lingering posttraumatic symptoms following attending TOP’s/stillbirths. Impact StatementWhat is already known on this subject? There is a very little research on the ways in which medical personnel respond to Stillbirths, late miscarriages and terminations of pregnancy (TOP) of their patients and on the possible effect of their personality traits in this response. Whatdothe results of this study add? According to our results, medical personnel do not appear to develop long-term and lingering posttraumatic symptoms following attending TOP’s/stillbirths. Whatarethe implicationsof these findings for clinical practice and/or further research? Further studies are warranted to better assess the impact of exposure to traumatic events in general and on the effect of late TOP and stillbirths in particular, on medical personnel and to identify interventions that may prevent posttraumatic symptoms among staff members when they happen.