Transforming loss: Taiwanese women's adaptation to stillbirth

Abstract

The processes that the mothers of stillborn babies experience represent transformations that involve engagement with cultural expectations for woman. The authors suggest that these cultural impacts should be incorporated into nursing assessment and treatment practices.

The psychological and social consequences of miscarriage

“…Hsu, Tseng and Kuo reported on incomplete grieving processes in a study group of Taiwanese mothers who had experienced a perinatal death, but because of cultural norms and taboos, were prevented from talking about the death or taking part in death-related rituals [72]. African-American women, however, believe that spiritual or religious activities can aid coping with miscarriage [73], as did McGreal, Evans and Burrows's Caucasian women [70].…”

“…The loss, grief, sadness, fear, guilt and alarm reactions in women who miscarried and the intensity of these feelings have been described by Abboud and Liamputtong, and these varied depending on the personal circumstances and the reactions of others to their miscarriage [78]. In some developing countries the cultural ethos dictates a stigma associated with reproductive loss and a lack of empowerment (access to education, healthcare and an independent income) for many women, who therefore are prohibited from expressing their emotional needs for fear of the social consequences [39,72]. The National Women's Health Study [79] qualitatively describes the personal stories of women from a nationally representative, population based, postal survey of the reproductive history of adult women in the UK, through an open-ended section for additional comments.…”

Caring for families experiencing stillbirth: Evidence-based guidance for maternity care providers

“…Full details regarding the methodological quality of the 123 included studies is presented in the systematic review report. 19 The included studies were conducted 124 in Australia (3) 13,27,28 , the United States (5) 5,7,15,29,30 , Sweden (5) 2,8,9,31,32 , Canada (1) 33 , Taiwan (3) [34][35][36] , 125 the United Kingdom (2) 11,12 , South Africa (1) 6 , Japan (1) 17 , and Norway (1) 16 . Most studies included 126 mothers aged between 18 to 41 years; one study included mothers up to the age of 62.…”

“…27,28,30,32,33 . The time since stillbirth reported in the included 129 studies most commonly ranged from two to three months, 12,13 up to six years, 2,8,15,17,[29][30][31][32][33][34][35] and up to 22 130 years after stillbirth in one study. 31 …”

Taiwanese Women's Process of Recovery From Stillbirth: A Qualitative Descriptive Study

“…Little is known about how women in non-Western countries experience stillbirth or the factors that promote or inhibit their ability to adapt to this loss (Hsu, Tseng, & Kuo, 2002;Kelley & Rubens, 2010). Thus, the purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to understand experiences of Taiwanese women who had given birth to stillborn babies within that country's unique sociocultural context.…”