Carrying Death: A Qualitative Study of Women’s Bodily Perceptions After Their Baby Died in Utero

TY - JOUR

T1 - Carrying Death

T2 - A Qualitative Study of Women’s Bodily Perceptions After Their Baby Died in Utero

AU - Damm, Maiken F.

AU - Jørgensen, Mathilde L.

AU - Eklund, Mette V.

AU - Hvidtjørn, Dorte

AU - Prinds, Christina

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2023.

PY - 2023/6/26

Y1 - 2023/6/26

N2 - When a child dies in utero death becomes an integrated part of the mothers living body and this complex experience places a heavy existential and bodily burden on a woman experiencing stillbirth. This study uses a phenomenological approach with focus groups and individual interviews and data is discussed within a theoretical existential framework. Interviews of six women who experienced stillbirth within a range of 5 years were performed in Denmark. The participants experienced the dissonance of carrying death in their living body, expressed heightened existential considerations, a sense of transgression and of feeling trapped in an unbearable situation, and an experience of both dislocation from their body and an extreme bodily awareness. The study generates new knowledge and understanding of the how stillbirth is experienced as incomprehensible and as a violent bodily invasion of death with deep existential impact.

AB - When a child dies in utero death becomes an integrated part of the mothers living body and this complex experience places a heavy existential and bodily burden on a woman experiencing stillbirth. This study uses a phenomenological approach with focus groups and individual interviews and data is discussed within a theoretical existential framework. Interviews of six women who experienced stillbirth within a range of 5 years were performed in Denmark. The participants experienced the dissonance of carrying death in their living body, expressed heightened existential considerations, a sense of transgression and of feeling trapped in an unbearable situation, and an experience of both dislocation from their body and an extreme bodily awareness. The study generates new knowledge and understanding of the how stillbirth is experienced as incomprehensible and as a violent bodily invasion of death with deep existential impact.

KW - bodily perceptions

KW - death

KW - existentialism

KW - pregnancy loss

KW - stillbirth

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85165870821&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1177/00302228231190544

DO - 10.1177/00302228231190544

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 37493011

AN - SCOPUS:85165870821

SN - 0030-2228

JO - Omega (United States)

JF - Omega (United States)

ER -