Jennifer Bute and Maria Brann, “When Technology Meets Trauma: Integrating Reproductive Grief Screening into the Technological Continuum of Care”
Sept. 14, 10:10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., Cone Center, Room 210
As reproductive technologies continue to redefine the possibilities of conception, they also reshape the landscape of reproductive loss. For many patients, the intersection of high-tech medical interventions and pregnancy loss produces a uniquely complex, often disenfranchised form of grief. Yet clinical settings lack standardized tools to assess this psychological trauma.
This lecture highlights the pioneering work of communication researchers Jennifer J. Bute and Maria Brann (IU School of Liberal Arts), who have worked with a multidisciplinary team to develop a specialized reproductive grief screening tool to reshape clinical practice. Reproductive loss affects approximately 2 million women annually in the United States alone and can trigger profound identity crises, severe anxiety, PTSD, and depression. By examining the development and implementation of this screening tool, this session explores how health care providers can better identify at-risk patients, open vital dialogues about loss, and integrate comprehensive mental health advocacy into the standard continuum of reproductive technology and care.
Jennifer Bute and Maria Brann are Professors of Communication Studies at IU Indianapolis.