The Use of Ritual for Perinatal Loss in Spain : From Silence to Ceremony

This book is an ethnographic study of perinatal loss ritual in Spain that investigates how people have used ritual to confront the loss of a pregnancy or death of a newborn, and what it costs them when they cannot. The book argues that ritual is fundamental to the social recognition of perinatal loss and to the personhood of the lost child.

This book is an ethnographic study of perinatal loss ritual in Spain, spanning nine decades from 1936 to 2022. It investigates whether and how people in Spain have used ritual to confront the loss of a pregnancy or the death of a newborn, and what it costs them when they cannot. Drawing on qualitative interviews with more than forty participants and fieldwork across Spain’s autonomous communities, the book examines four dimensions of ritual: the actions people perform, the actors who participate, the objects they deploy, and the places they create. Situating these findings within Spain’s distinctive political, religious, legal, and medical history – from the Franco dictatorship through the contemporary perinatal loss activism movement – it documents a dramatic shift. Before 2008, fewer than half of participants had engaged in any ritual action in relation to their loss; after 2008, only a small minority had not. The book argues that ritual, however improvised or unsanctioned, is fundamental to the social recognition of perinatal loss and to the personhood of the lost child. The Use of Ritual for Perinatal Loss in Spain will appeal to scholars and students in anthropology, sociology, ritual studies, medical humanities, and reproductive health. It is also essential reading for healthcare professionals, policymakers, counselors, and perinatal loss advocates seeking evidence-based insight into the therapeutic and social dimensions of bereavement ritual across cultural and historical contexts.