Abstract

Introduction: The  months  of  excitement  and  expectation  and  planning  magnifying  the devastating  incomprehension  of  giving  birth  to  a  baby  bearing  no  signs  of  life. Stillbirth has been recognized as one of the most neglected areas of public health while millions of
women are suffering from aftermath of its occurrence. Exploring root causes of malpractice, myth, attitude and misperception helps to focus on meaningful, contextual and evidenced based interventions. However there is no any documented research specifically addressing experience of mother with still birth in the study area.
Objective:  The  aim  of  this  study  is  to  explore  mothers’  lived  experiences  related  to  still  birth Method and materials: Qualitative study design with hermeneutic phenomenological approach  was  conducted  in  Eastern  Ethiopia,  January  2019.  The  snow  ball  sampling  
technique was used to pick and interview four mothers who had delivered still birth in the last  12  months  using  local  language.  Nvivo  version  11  software  and  steps  of  Colaizzi’s  were  used  for  data  analysis  after  members  were  checked  the  congruence  of  given  report and thematized results.
Findings:  the  data  were  saturated  at  four  in-depth  interview  and  emerged  themes  were: ‘Shanfa’: a fetus as a tax given to God, ‘Allatti’: a shadow of a bird as cause for fetal death,‘Mijawiru’:  getting  offensive  nick  name,  Feeling  accused  to  happiness,  ‘Mana  Kitaaba’  
as a prevention  or  treatment,  powerlessness  on  self-determination,  Challenge  in  getting facilities, being fatigue and ignorance, Oxygen Hunger in ambulance, and Partner support.
Conclusion  and  recommendations:  There  are  lots  of  unspeakable  myth  and  challenges that a specific mother are experiencing due to still birth. Some are helpful for better coping and some are hiding issue from getting proper attention and management. As part of globaland national response to perinatal mortality, mothers experience need to be explored with multi-site, high tech investigation to identify problem and make proper planning to solve the challenges.

Keywords

still birth, lived experience, phenomenology, qualitative, perinatal loss, fetal death