Paper short abstract:

This paper aims to show how un/certainty is constantly questioned when parents are expecting a baby following a stillbirth. Scientific and public health authorities as well as medical technologies aiming at preventing uncertainties make unsuspected effects on those experiencing this surveillance.

Paper long abstract:

In the actual quest of postmortality, a stillbirth appears as a failure for parents as well as for both scientific and public health authorities. In this context, time for mourning is, at best, a « rite de passage » to another pregnancy. This expectation stands against the state of horror, the lost of all references and the possibility of a double failure (e.g.: the breaking up of the couple, the suicide of the parents, etc.). To help the begrieved parents through this period, health authorities propose nothing but the results of autopsy, genetic tests, or psychological assistance. The parents are even introduces to the specialists who will take charge of their next pregnancy. In the meantime the mother has to convince herself that she is not lethal, that she can give birth to a healthy child. Should she become pregnant these thoughts will continue to inhabit her. The responses of the health authorities focus on ultrasound scan to directly monitor the baby, cumulating data. However, these information's can never result in a complete picture, leaving room for interpretations and doubts, hence uncertainty. In spite of such monitoring and data gathering no one seem to be able to account for the continuing high rate of unexplained cases of stillbirth. My analysis is based on a long term research on data produced by both the medical board and the public health surveillance. To these must be added data gathered regularly within the website created by a group of parents having experienced such lost.