[Saying goodbye to the newborn: the unease and actions of nursing professionals in handling stillbirth care].

Background: Facing the death of newborns is an inescapable part of the professional responsibilities of delivery room nurses. The meaning of the inner conflict of these nurses and their nursing experience in handling newborn death is poorly addressed in nursing practice.

Purpose: This research explores the stillbirth care experiences of delivery room nurses.

Methods: A qualitative approach was used to investigate the stillbirth-care experiences of nurse participants.

Results: The results elicited the experiences of participants with inner conflict and their resulting action caring. Main themes extracted from data include: feeling unease about being unable to provide effective treatment and the need to say goodbye to the deceased newborn. The former includes the subthemes of: guilt about doing nothing and feeling conflicted about ending a life. The latter includes: caring about and empathizing with the mother and accompanying the mother as she says goodbye to her baby. Additionally, the theme of saying a personal goodbye to the newborn baby includes praying for the baby and respecting baby's body.

Conclusions / Implications For Practice: The findings of this study enhance the nursing practice knowledge of stillbirth nursing in the delivery room.