Mothers' Lived Experiences of Losing a Child to Cancer: A Phenomenological Study

Objective: the death of a child is undoubtedly the most arduous encounter for a mother inher lifetime, and it elicits numerous psychological detriments. specifically, the death of achild resulting from cancer carries its own set of challenges. analyzing the lived experienceof these mothers can serve as a means to identify and comprehend their grief, thus becomingthe foundation for efficacious interventions. consequently, the objective of the presentinvestigation was to scrutinize the lived experiences of grieving mothers whose children hadsuccumbed to cancer.methods: the current research was conducted utilizing a qualitative and phenomenologicalapproach. the sampling technique employed was purposive, encompassing a maximumvariation sampling. the study included a total of 13 bereaved mothers residing in yazd city,who had lost their children to cancer. the methodology employed for data collection involvedsemi-structured interviews.results: subsequent to conducting the interviews and documenting them, each recordedsession was transcribed and examined utilizing colaizzi's method. this process yielded sixprimary themes and twenty-four secondary themes through the analysis of the data. theprimary themes comprised emotional experience, physical experience, cognitive experience,challenging experience, the meaning of life, and avoidance.conclusions: these findings demonstrate the nature of the grief experienced by mothers, andthese themes have the potential to facilitate effective interventions aimed at mitigating thesymptoms of grief.