Perinatal death distresses all family members. Paternal perceptions of perinatal death should be better understood in order to help the expectant father maintain long-term health and quality of life and minimize the potential negative effects of paternal grieving and stress on family and marital relations. Male and female grieving behaviors have been shown to differ significantly. Taiwan society typically expects males to be strong and support the family while avoiding the overt expression or revelation of personal feelings such as grief, regret, and anger. Although fathers may be reluctant to express a need for care, care personnel may facilitate care through such activities as understanding of a perinatal-death father's feelings, providing related messages about the event to facilitate good decisions, helping him support his spouse, helping him adopt appropriate behaviors and attitudes toward the fetus, and treating him as a grieving father rather than a medical event. This article reviews the literature to explore paternal perceptions and reactions toward perinatal death in order to recognize nursing needs and principles of grieving fathers within the Taiwan cultural context. Further study in this area is recommended.
Title: 父親於周產期死亡事件之哀傷與照護
周產期死亡事件所撼動的不僅是失去胎兒的孕母，尚包括期待胎兒出生的其他家庭成員，尤其是父親。若父親的感受未被理解，不僅有損其健康，也會影響孕母所得到的支持，但男性在哀傷的表現上可能與女性不同。在我國文化的特性以及社會期望之下，男性總是扮演堅強者及支持者的角色，他們從小被教導不應輕易表達情感或揭露自我，故傾向以隱匿或是以憤怒的方式表達其哀傷。這些看似堅強的父親仍然需要照護人員了解其感受、提供與事件相關的訊息以利於做決定、協助其支持配偶，以合宜的言辭和態度對待胎兒，以及視他為一個悲傷的父親而非僅是件醫療事件。由於我國缺乏相關研究，故本文欲探討在我國文化價值信念下的男性哀傷反應，以確認這些父親的照護需求與原則，並對未來的研究提出建議。
Keywords: father; gender role; grief; perinatal death; perinatal loss.