Experience of obstetricnurses in supporting women in the face of fetal death

Mykaelle Almeida Salgado, Gilvânia Patrícia do Nascimento Paixão, Rejane Cristiany Lins de França Pereira, Aloysia Graça Costa Unfried, Selma Viana Lessa, Rudval Souza da Silva

Abstract

In the hospital context, nursing professionals are those who are constantly providing care to women who face grief, but these professionals are not always prepared to provide proper support and/or know how to deal with this situation. This study sought to reveal the experience of midwives in supporting women before the diagnosis of fetal death. This is an exploratory and descriptive study with a qualitative approach, carried out in a maternal-infant referral hospital in the interior of Pernambuco with 11 obstetric nurses. For data collection, a semi-structured interview was used and these were organized and analyzed using the Thematic Content Analysis method. Three categories emerged from the analysis, namely: difficulties in the confrontation of fetal death; gap in training on perinatal palliative care; Compassionate communication before the fetal death. It is concluded  the experience of obstetric nurses goes through an emotional overload that implies a feeling of professional unpreparedness in the confrontation of the loss and with the sick family, deficiency in the training on the confrontation of the duel and the death of health professionals, in addition to complicating factors in care, what is clear is the need to look at the professional who provides care.