Subsequent pregnancies in women who experienced a stillbirth or neonatal death

Abstract

Objectives

The study investigated the ability of mothers to overcome their grief following a stillbirth or neonatal death, and elucidated their experience of the next pregnancy.

Subjects and Methods

The participants in the study were mothers who experienced a stillbirth or neonatal death, and subsequently gave birth to a live baby at full term. Unstructured interviews were held, followed by analysis using Giorgi's descriptive phenomenological approach.

Results

The study participants were six mothers who had experienced a stillbirth or neonatal death between 16 and 37 weeks of gestation, and subsequently had their first live birth. During the next pregnancy, the mothers who had experienced a stillbirth or neonatal death were unable to avoid “doubts and negativity about their own physical conditions as mothers” as a result of their stillbirth or neonatal death experience. The mothers frequently experienced anxiety or fear because of the “trauma of reliving the death in the next pregnancy.” Several of the mothers had regrets about their previous pregnancies and felt that they will “accept the life as it actually is,” they also felt “connections with the life of the lost child.” When the gestational week when they experienced a stillbirth or neonatal death in their previous pregnancy passed, the mothers felt that “as the weeks progressed, I gradually became reassured that I was actually going to have the baby.” As the pregnancy progressed, their past and present experiences interacted and the mothers developed a strong desire to “accept the life as it actually is,” despite their anxiety or fear. Although the mothers had the painful experience of feeling unable to share their grief and distress about losing a child, they also had the positive experience of being emotionally rescued by the existence of people who they can be close to, physically and emotionally and “share the existence of the lost child.”

Conclusions

Six themes were representative of the mothers who experienced a stillbirth or neonatal death and subsequently became pregnant again. These mothers appreciated the miraculous nature and dignity of life from their experience of having lost a precious child. They discovered a way of living as mothers who “accept the life as it actually is.” The mothers felt that they wanted to continue walking the path of life together with the lost child through the next pregnancy. Nurses need to support the women as being mothers of the lost child and the new child through their process of growth, while acknowledging and embracing their experience of trauma.