Reclaiming a moral identity: stillbirth, stigma and ‘moral mothers’

Objectivesto understand the effect of expectant motherhood discourses on parents who suffer a stillbirth.Designa qualitative, exploratory study using in-depth interviews to understand parental experience of stillbirth.Settinginterviews took place in the homes of bereaved parents across several English health authorities.Participants10 couples and 12 mothers who had experienced a stillbirth.Findingsmothers were keen to distance themselves from behaviour that might be seen as stigmatising, that is, smoking, drinking, etc., while pregnant. Fathers, while keen to stress that their partners had behaved well in pregnancy, made no such claims.Key conclusionsstillbirth constitutes a threat to a maternal ‘moral’ identity, which results in a differential experience of loss for mothers than for fathers.Implications for practisecomprehending that the experience of stillbirth might lead the mother to feel that her identity as a ‘moral mother’ is under threat is essential in understanding the maternal experience of stillbirth.