Systematic Review of the Psychological Impact of Memory Making on Parents following the death of a baby, child or stillborn infant in the neonatal or pediatric intensive care units or maternity ward

Background: Bereavement support by nurses following the death of a patient is an important aspect of their professional role. Memory making (MM) is one way an infant/child’s death and the family’s loss may be acknowledged. Although MM is becoming commonplace, the psychological impact of MM is less understood. We aim to summarize and synthesize the current literature on the psychological impact of MM on parents who have experienced the death of an infant or child in the pediatric or neonatal intensive care units or on maternity wards. Methods: A systematic search strategy of CINAHL, MEDLINE, Embase, and Web of Science for original English language research from inception until July 17, 2025, along with a manual search of reference lists of all included papers was conducted. The initial search revealed 716 studies including 267 duplicates; 449 were screened, 84 underwent full text review and 10 were included in the final review. Data was extracted into a customized data form built within Covidence. A narrative review was undertaken due to study heterogeneity. Thematic analysis was completed to identify unifying themes. Critical Appraisal Skills Programme tool and GRADE-CERQual were used to assess risk of bias. Results : The 10 studies were conducted in 5 countries: USA (n=5), UK (n=2), Sweden (n=1), Canada (n=1) and Australia (n=1). Nine included stillbirths or early neonatal/infant losses and one included older children. Eight qualitative studies and two cohort studies (including 1073 participants) were included. Six themes emerged: 1. Validation of the child’s existence (n=6), 2. Need for a personalized, individualized family centered care approach to care (n=8), 3. Mental health and well-being (n=5), 4. Parental role(s)/bonding and connection (n=4), 5. Importance of sharing one’s story (n=5), and 6. Coping with grief and loss (n=5). Conclusions: Most studies on MM are qualitative and of moderate quality, with limited generalizability due to self-selection bias, and small sample sizes. Yet, two important high-quality themes (validation of the child’s existence and the need for a personalized, culturally sensitive approach) were identified. Future research should include non-Western, non-Caucasian and older pediatric patients; examine how parents and siblings accept MM and the associated psychological effects. Funding : none PROSPERO Registration: CRD42023462423 https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?ID=CRD42023462423 Clinical trial number : not applicable