Evil Eye, Stress and Overwork: Theories of Miscarriage Causations among Qatari Women

Background: Roughly one in five clinically recognized pregnancies ends in a miscarriage. Despite being a common adverse pregnancy outcome, the experiential aspects of miscarriage remain relatively understudied, particularly in non-Western societies. The research uses medical anthropological theories to investigating the impact of cultural context on the experience of miscarriage. This paper explores notions of miscarriage causality, and risk among Qatari women and the subsequent preventive measures.

Methods: It involved over 18 months of ethnography in Qatar. The sample includes 60 primary participants (20 pregnant women and 40 women who had recently miscarried), and 55 secondary participants including family members, health care providers, religious scholars and traditional healers. Data was collected used semi-structured interviews and participant observation. Primary participants were interviewed in Arabic on several occasions. Few secondary participants were interviewed in English. Interviews were audio recorded, transcribed & translated into English. Inductive thematic analysis of content was performed manually to extract themes.

Results: The notions of miscarriage causation and risk and their related preventive measures were emerged in relation to specific research questions. Qatari women attributed miscarriages to many reasons including: biomedical factors, physical activities, nutrition, excessive sex, stress, evil eye, failure to perform particular rituals, and ultimately the loss as God’s will. Resting, seeing more than one physician, taking the prescribed medications, healthy diet, and spiritual healing (ruqyah), are among their recommendations of things a woman can do to avoid miscarriages.

Conclusion: Qatari women’s actions and beliefs around miscarriage are deeply embedded in social, cultural and religious factors. Insight into the cultural construction of this experience as seen through the eyes of the women provides information. This can enhance health care providers’ familiarity with the culture around pregnancy and miscarriage, thereby increases women’s awareness about miscarriage causes and provide medical care and support to women in a more culturally informed manner.