title: Meaning-making after neonatal death: narratives of Xhosa-speaking women in South Africa.
abstract: The death of a neonate can be traumatic for mothers, resulting in profound grief which ruptures their sense of coherence and identity. A narrative approach was used to explore how six Xhosa-speaking women tell stories about the death of their baby to help them understand the significance of the loss. They struggled to establish a sense of their baby as a person to be mourned, to redefine their own identity, and to find reasons for the death. Their meaning-making was influenced by the baby's father, older women in their community, and the context of deprivation in which they live.
authors: Department of Psychology, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa. colleengrace@telkomsa.net
authors: Colleen
authors: C
authors: Sturrock
authors: Department of Psychology, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.
authors: Johann
authors: J
authors: Louw
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D054521:Cultural Competency; D005190:Family / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006117:Grief; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*; D012944:Social Support; D013019:South Africa; D050497:Stillbirth / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult