Maternal mourning: social representation for women

Objective: To understand the social representations of maternal mourning for women who have experienced it. Method: Descriptive and exploratory study with a qualitative approach, based on Serge Moscovici's Theory of Social Representations. For data analysis, the Bardin Content Analysis Technique was used. Results: The results of this study were divided according to the characterization of the participants and the categorization of the statements in blocks, highlighting the most significant and frequent speeches, which were divided in two categories: Social representations of pregnancy for women and Social Representations of maternal mourning for women experiencing it. Final consideration: The social representations of mourning for women influence the way they experience maternal mourning, potentiating or mitigating it. In this study, the social representations of mourning influenced most women negatively, impacting the grieving process, making it longer prolonged due to the difficulty of reframing and accepting the perinatal loss.