Objective: to ascertain the different experiences of grief in women who have suffered spontaneous abortions during the first trimester of pregnancy. Specific objectives: to identify the different representations of motherhood, life and death of women who have suffered miscarriages; to explore women’s perceptions of the female body; to understand the relationship between coping mechanisms in the face of a miscarriage and representations of motherhood, death and corporality.

Methods: exploratory study, using a qualitative and phenomenological strategy, from a gender perspective. Scope of the study: obstetric emergencies service of the Hospital of Fuenlabrada, this service being the reference service for the cities of Fuenlabrada, Humanes and Moraleja de Enmedio, all belonging to Area 9 of the Community of Madrid. Study subjects: theoretical sampling, by means of selective coding according to predetermined categories; the study participants being women diagnosed with miscarriage who attended the emergency service of the Hospital of Fuenlabrada, as well the Nursing staff of the obstetric emergencies service, operating rooms and reanimation. Procedures: field work. Data collection was structured in three consecutive phases and the procedures selected were participant observation (ethnographic context of the three cities and intensive observation of the hospital setting), 16 in-depth interviews and 9 semi-structured interviews with Nursing professionals. Data analysis: theory based on following Corbin and Strauss. The software programme Atlas ti. 5.0. was used. Ethical considerations: all participants have been verbally informed by the research team and have signed the informed consent form, approved by the CEIC of the Hospital of Fuenlabrada. The confidentiality and anonymity of the information were guaranteed at all times.

Results: the distress resulting from miscarriage in the women participating in this study led to a more or less stressful situation, depending on three primary elements: the relevance of their maternity, the congruence or incongruence of motherhood, as well as the type of ego involvement, viewing this as implications related with other people and their well-being, social and personal esteem, moral values, ideals, meanings and ideas. Three social identities were isolated: housewife, adaptive woman and competitive woman. Each of these identities had certain psychosocial vulnerability factors and a specific idea of motherhood that conditioned how they dealt with their grief.

Conclusions: the main finding of this study is the broadening of the construction of grief as a social and cultural phenomenon. This served as a tool in the management of grief, implementing a plan to improve the care provided to these women by means of the pilot biopsychosocial intervention method and subjectivation of the care of women who are undergoing the grief process.