Mothers’ lived experiences of intra-uterine foetal death in a public hospital

Abstract: Intrauterine foetal death that occurs in the latter part of the third trimester is a devastating experience and outcome of pregnancy for the affected mothers. Caring for such mothers can be demanding and challenging for midwives. To ensure optimal nursing care is received, midwives must have an understanding of the emotional and psychological being of these mothers. The objectives of the study was to explore and describe, the lived experiences of mothers, experiencing an intra–uterine foetal death in a public hospital in Gauteng and to describe the recommendations to improve the care provided by midwives to the affected mothers. The study was conducted in the postnatal wards at the public hospital in Gauteng province. A qualitative, explorative, descriptive and contextual research design was utilised. Purposive sampling was utilised in selecting the mothers who were willing and gave consent to participate in the study. The selection criteria was mothers who experienced intra-uterine foetal death at term >37weeks in pregnancy. Individual in depth interviews were used to collect a data. A central question was asked ‘how is it for you to deliver a stillborn?”. Probing questions were asked. Data collection was done until saturation was reached at the eighth participant. Giorgi’s five-step method of data analysis based on some principles of phenomenological philosophy was utilised to analyse data. An independent co-coder was involved in data analysis followed by a consensus discussion meeting between the researcher and the co-coder to finalise the findings. Follow up individual interviews done with three of the mothers who took part in the study to verify the findings. The findings that emerged had three themes (Internal experiences, Healthcare- related experiences and Wishes), four categories (physical, perceptual and emotional experiences, healthcare events, respect and caring and 20 sub-categories. The findings were discussed using relevant literature and the recommendations described were to improve the care provided by midwives to the mothers with IUFD. Lincoln and Guba’s (1985) model was utilised, namely credibility, dependability, confirmability and transferability in ensuring trustworthiness. Ethical considerations were adhered to as outlined by Dhai and McQuoid-Mason (2011:78). The principles...M.Cur