Status : Verified
| Personal Name | Mallare, Jianne Carla F.; Alcantara, Kacey P. |
|---|---|
| Resource Title | Duyan ng katahimikan: grief and healing among Filipino couples who experienced perinatal loss |
| Date Issued | 30 June 2026 |
| Abstract | While perinatal loss, either through miscarriage and stillbirth, remains to be a tragic experience, for Filipino couples it is commonly emotionally painful and often left unacknowledged by the community. Using Doka’s Disenfranchisement Grief Theory, Neimeyer’s Meaning Reconstruction Theory, and Stroebe and Schut’s Dual Process Model of Grief, this qualitative phenomenological study explores the experience of fifteen (15) Filipino heterosexual couples from Central Luzon highlighting how they experienced and processed the grief, healing, and meaning-making. The research highlights that grieving a pregnancy loss is a multifaceted, unpredictable experience that causes emotional distress, relationship strain, silence, and existential questioning. Mothers tended to express grief more openly through crying, emotional disclosure, and self-blame. Meanwhile fathers frequently internalized their pain and adapted emotionally restrained coping strategies that are influenced by societal expectations of masculinity and katatagan. The couple’s search for healing and meaning is largely influenced by the deeply ingrained Filipino cultural values of hiya, pakikisama, and pakikiramay alongside faith-based beliefs. Thus, in navigating the loss, couples heavily relied on shared meaning-making, familial support, emotional endurance, and remembrance rituals to cope. While the trajectory of grief initially induced severe emotional distance and conflict, this period ultimately served as a driver for dyadic growth, deepening relational intimacy and mutual resilience. Ultimately, the findings stresses the urgent need for a culturally sensitive and accessible psychosocial support system (SDG 3) promoting mental healthcare, validation and acknowledgement of father’s overlooked grief (SDG 5), provision of equitable resources for bereaved families (SDG 10), and institutional recognition bringing this unspoken loss into public awareness (SDG 16). |
| Degree Course | Bachelor of Arts in Applied Psychology |
| Language | English; Filipino |
| Keyword | stillbirth; Perinatal loss; miscarriage; meaning-making; healing; vilomah; grief; disenfranchised grief; Filipino couples |
| Material Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
Preliminary Pages
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Category : F - Regular work, i.e., it has no patentable invention or creation, the author does not wish for personal publication, there is no confidential information.
Access Permission : Open Access