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

Abstract

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.