mothers experiences on how care givers break bad news about their perinatal mortality

mothers experiences on how care givers break bad news about their perinatal mortality    sereshti m [1] *, izadi a [2]     received: 24 may , 2013 accepted: 18 aug , 2013    abstract  background & aims : breaking bad news to parents in perinatal periods is an especially difficult and important part of maternal education and counseling. this qualitative study aimed to explore maternal experience of delivering bad news by caregiver in perinatal periods.   materials & methods : this qualitative study were conducted in 2012 in shahrekord, in –depth interviews with 38 mothers who had experienced a perinatal loss(abortion, miscarriage ,in-utero death, still birth, or death of a newborn within the 28 day of life) within the last 2 years. the data was collected through the use of open interviews and analyzed by content analysis method .  results: the data analysis resulted in emerging 5 themes of maternal preferences for how to deliver bad news. methods of communication, who disclose bad news, supporting, environmental and facilitating items were important factors for mothers during breaking bad news in prenatal periods.  conclusion: results of this study showed some light on what is important to women who face bad news in perinatal periods. although more researches are needed in this field. we hope that our results assist health care provider in establishing guidelines for the effective communication during breaking bad news.  key words: bad news, maternal experiences, perinatal mortality, congenital malformation    address: shahrecord, rahmteah, shahrecord medical sciences university, nursing and midwifery faculty, midwifery department   tel: (+98) 9131838438   email : [email protected]   [1] phd student in reproductive health, department of midwifery, the international branch of behesti university of medical sciences and health services (corresponding author) *   2 assistant professor, education center of imam hussein university, tehran, iran