The spiritual and theological challenges of stillbirth for bereaved parents
Abstract
Stillbirth is recognized as one of the most challenging experiences of bereavement raising significant spiritual and theological questions. Semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with bereaved parents cared for in a tertiary maternity hospital to explore the spiritual impact of stillbirth. Data were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Stillbirth was identified as an immensely challenging spiritual and personal experience with enduring impact for parents. The superordinate themes to emerge were searching for meaning, maintaining hope and questioning core beliefs. Most parents reported that their spiritual needs were not adequately addressed while in hospital. The faith of all parents was challenged with only one parent experiencing a stronger faith following stillbirth. This study reveals the depth of spiritual struggle for parents bereaved following stillbirth with a recommendation that spiritual care is provided as part of comprehensive perinatal bereavement care in the obstetric setting.
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Caring for parents inappropriately during perinatal bereavement can lead to devastating and long-lasting consequences that can severely affect a woman and her partner's grieving journey.
“Caring for parents inappropriately during this time can lead to devastating and long-lasting consequences that can severely affect a woman and her partners grieving journey (Burden et al., 2016; Quinn, 2016; Nuzum et al., 2017).”
From Stranger in a mask” midwives’ experiences of providing perinatal bereavement care to parents during the COVID-19 pandemic in Ireland: a qualitative descriptive study (2022) · cites this paper as Nuzum et al., 2017
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- Authors
- Nuzum, D., Meaney, S., & O’Donoghue, K.
- Affiliations
- University College Cork (IE)
- Corresponding author
- Nuzum, Daniel
- Venue
- Journal of Religion and Health
- Published
- 2017-02-02
- Volume
- 56
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 1081-1095
- ISSN
- 0022-4197 (ISSN-L)
- 1573-6571
- OpenAlex
- W2584829798
- Cited by
- 38
- References
- 37
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 3
- FWCI
- 6.78
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Religion and Health (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health
- Social Sciences › Health › Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Palliative and Oncologic Care
- Keywords
- stillbirth, perinatal bereavement, spiritual impact, theological questions, spiritual care, meaning-making, hope, obstetric care, parents of stillborn infants
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Bereavement, Female, Humans, Interviews as Topic, Male, Parents, Religion and Psychology, Spirituality, Stillbirth
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