Document Type
Article
Department
School of Nursing and Midwifery, Pakistan
Abstract
Background: Cultural explanations of unexplained infant illness can shape maternal distress and care-seeking, particularly where access to biomedical services is constrained. This study explored how mothers understood neonatal illness that they associated with the evil eye (nazar), and how those understandings influenced care decisions.
Methods: A Heideggerian interpretive phenomenological design was used. Fifteen mothers from Dhandal and Gurmul villages in Doda district were purposively selected and interviewed face to face in Saraji using a semi-structured interview schedule. Interviews lasted 45–90 minutes. Translated interview accounts and field notes were examined using Braun and Clarke’s six-phase thematic analysis.
Findings: Six themes were identified consistently across the analysis: (1) Evil Eye caused sudden illness;(2) existential distress; (3) spiritual referral; (4) traditional healing culture; (5) Ritual as protective means; and (6) community reinforcement of belief. Mothers described moving between biomedical, familial and spiritual systems rather than following a single care pathway. They attributed changes in their infants’ symptoms to medicines, rituals or spiritual interventions, but the qualitative design cannot establish clinical causality. A divergent account from a mother who initially rejected ‘superstition’ showed that beliefs could be negotiated under conditions of uncertainty and family influence.
Conclusion: The findings illuminate culturally situated maternal meaning-making and medical pluralism in two rural communities. Midwives and other newborn-care professionals should invite respectful discussion of explanatory beliefs while maintaining evidence-based assessment, safety-netting, timely referral and attention to maternal psychological distress.
Recommended Citation
Ahmed, A, Jabeen, R, & Acharya, S S. Beyond medical illness: A phenomenological study of mother’s lived experience of ‘Evil Eye’ in neonatal illness. Journal of Asian Midwives. 2026;13(1):1–20.
