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Background: Stillbirth is an extremely traumatic and distressing experience for parents, with profound and long-lasting negative impacts. Cultural beliefs and practices surrounding death vary considerably across different contexts and groups, and are a key influence on individual experiences, impacting grief, adjustment, and support needs. Few studies have explored cultural influences surrounding stillbirth in an African context. This study explored the influence of cultural beliefs and practices on the experiences of bereaved parents and health workers after stillbirth in urban and rural settings in Kenya and Uganda.Methods: A qualitative descriptive study design was employed. Face to face interviews were conducted with parents (N = 134) who experienced a stillbirth (≤ 1 year) and health workers (N = 61) at five facilities in Uganda and Kenya. Interviews were conducted in English or the participants' local language, audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Analysis was conducted using descriptive thematic analysis.Results: Commonalities in cultural beliefs and practices existed across the two countries. Three main themes were identified: 1) Gathering round, describes the collective support parents received from family and friends after stillbirth. 2)'It is against our custom' addresses cultural constraints and prohibitions impacting parents' behaviour and coping in the immediate aftermath of the baby's death. 3) 'Maybe it's God's plan or witchcraft' summarises spiritual, supernatural, and social beliefs surrounding the causes of stillbirth.Conclusions: Kinship and social support helped parents to cope with the loss and grief. However, other practices and beliefs surrounding stillbirth were sometimes a source of stress, fear, stigma and anxiety especially to the women. Conforming to cultural practices meant that parents were prevented from: holding and seeing their baby, openly discussing the death, memory-making and attending the burial. The conflict between addressing their own needs and complying with community norms hindered parents' grief and adjustment. There is an urgent need to develop culturally sensitive community programmes geared towards demystifying stillbirths and providing an avenue for parents to grieve in their own way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction/Aims: Focused antenatal care provides individualised counselling, targeted assessment and safe, cost effective, evidence-based intervention. It has been implemented in developing countries as a strategy to improve maternal health. This study aimed to investigate sociodemographic factors associated with maternal complications in selected public county hospitals in Nairobi City County, Kenya. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study using a sample of 397 postnatal women who were given a questionnaire, with sections on their sociodemographic and health characteristics. Data analysis was done using the Chi Square test to determine the association between study variables, with P<0.05 considered statistically significant. Results: The study found that 30% of respondents reported a maternal complication during their current delivery outcome. Sociodemographic factors significantly associated with maternal complications were age (P=0.002), occupation (P=0.001) and income (P=0.011). The health factors associated with occurrence of maternal complications were number of deliveries (P=0.001) and mode of delivery (P=0.001). Conclusions: A number of factors were found to be significantly associated with maternal outcomes, including age and occupation. Further studies to determine why young women do not use focused antenatal care are necessary, as this would help reduce the incidence of birth-associated complications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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