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The Spiritual and Theological Challenges of Stillbirth for Bereaved Parents

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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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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University College Cork, Cork University Maternity Hospital, Wilton, Cork, Ireland

    Daniel Nuzum & Keelin O’Donoghue

  2. National Perinatal Epidemiology Centre, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland

    Sarah Meaney

  3. Irish Centre for Fetal and Neonatal Translational Research (INFANT), Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University College Cork, Cork University Maternity Hospital, Cork, Ireland

    Keelin O’Donoghue

Authors
  1. Daniel Nuzum
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  2. Sarah Meaney
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  3. Keelin O’Donoghue
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Correspondence to Daniel Nuzum.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

Daniel Nuzum declares that he has no conflict of interest; Sarah Meaney declares that she has no conflict of interest; and Keelin O’Donoghue declares that she has no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

Ethical approval for this study was received from the Clinical Research Ethics Committee of the Cork Teaching Hospitals (Ref. No: ECM 4 (pp) 06/03/12).

Human and Animal Rights

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Nuzum, D., Meaney, S. & O’Donoghue, K. The Spiritual and Theological Challenges of Stillbirth for Bereaved Parents. J Relig Health 56, 1081–1095 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-017-0365-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-017-0365-5

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