Grief, Loss of Child

Ultimately, death is unavoidable, a natural part of the life cycle. The death of a child, however, seems like a perversion of nature and is seen as a death out of order. Parents expect to predecease their children, not bury them. Maternal grief is a mother's highly variable emotional, physical, psychological, and social response to the death of her child of any age. Maternal grief is thought to be the most persistent and profound grief; mothers themselves are surprised by its depth and intensity. While there are common maternal responses to the death of a child, experiences of maternal grief are diverse, inconsistent, and change over a lifetime. Male parents also experience grief at the death of a child, but unlike maternal grief, their grief ...