2016 Volume 30 Issue 2 Pages 277-289
Objective
To explore women's decision-making and their experiences in the process during the antenatal period from the time women decided to continue with the pregnancy after the diagnosis of their baby's lethal condition.
Methods
A descriptive, qualitative study was used. Semi-structured interviews were conducted 1-4 times for each participant. Data analysis was performed qualitatively and inductively using the stories of women who continued their pregnancy while knowing their baby would die after delivery with the baby's lethal condition.
Result
Five women, who had lost the baby after the diagnosis of their baby's life-limited and life-threatening conditions, participated in the research. After the decision of continuing their pregnancy, they were forced into making multiple decisions based on their baby's medical issues. Those decisions include undergoing amniocentesis to get the confirmation of the diagnosis, resuscitation for the baby, delivery mode, timing of the birth and birth plan for the delivery. Four themes were found throughout those women's experiences in decision making: continuing pregnancy, however, my baby is what it is, concluding the hard and conflictive decision-making with compromise understanding the baby will never be cured, suffering from the pressure of their decision-making, and redirecting their value to processing the baby's death. Here was the belief existed behind these themes for the women to become a mother for the baby, even though they were going to die.
Conclusion
Women explored the parent role for their baby during the antenatal period, and they were getting ready to be a mother even though their baby was going to die. Other family members, friends, and medical staff did not pay enough attention to their feelings and the women's process to be a mother. The care for the women was lacking. Nurses and midwives need to show more interest in woman's feelings and to acknowledge their parenting role, and they need to support continual care after the diagnosis even though their baby is going to die.
