ABSTRACT
Abstract: Numerous nursing studies have examined suffering, but none have addressed the suffering and healing Buddhist mothers experience after the accidental death of a child. The purpose of this study was to gain understanding of the meaning of sufferingand the practices of healing and suffering, among Buddhist mothers after such a loss. Buddhist concepts provided the philosophical framework, and Gadamerian hermeneutic phenomenology provided the methodological framework, for this investigation.Ten Buddhist mothers were recruited from a government hospital in Songkhla province, Thailand. In-depth interviews were conducted and data were analyzed using hermeneutics. Five themes that reflected the meaning of suffering amongBuddhist mothers, after the accidental death of a child, were identified. They included: the mother’s heart was torn into pieces; the mother’s body was frozen andshe was uncertain she would survive; happiness in the mother’s life was missing; the mother’s anger and rage at self and others; and, the mother worried and wondered about the next life of her deceased child. The mothers were found to heal their suffering by: transforming their relationship with the deceased child; elevating the deceased child to be a very good child capable of going to heaven; making merit in order to pass the benefit to the deceased child; self-healing through understanding and mind cultivation; and, seeking support. The findings promote the understanding of the suffering and coping of Buddhist mothers whose child accidentally died.