Mothers’ grief following the death of a child

Abstract

The development of basic and further education and of various support measures would enable the staff to better cope with their work. Focusing on interactive skills and meeting the patient's individual needs using reflective practice would improve the quality of care. Communication and collaboration between different occupational groups should be promoted, because mothers were dissatisfied with dissemination of information, and ambiguous responsibilities between different occupational groups hampered the acquisition of information.

The Influence of Spirituality, Race/Ethnicity and Religion on Parent Grief and Mental Health at one month and three months after their Infant's/Child's death in the Neonatal or Pediatric Intensive Care Unit

“…Socially, parental grief is associated with feelings of emptiness, loneliness, and yearning. These feelings have the potential to threaten inner self especially if they become focused on self-blame and perceive themselves as failing to protect their child from harm (Barrera et al, 2009; Parents may also rely on alcohol or drugs to relieve their grief (Laakso & Ilmonen, 2001;Vance et al, 2002).…”

“…Bereaved parents can also find healing or bring meaning to their lives through spirituality not connected to religion, including meditation, inspirational writings, poetry, nature walks, listening to or creating music, painting or sculpting, and therapeutic touch (Klass, 1999;Laakso & Paunonen-Ilmonen, 2001;Meert, Thurston, & Briller, 2005).…”

“…As they begin to face the reality of their infant's/child's death, their grief is further intensified as they cannot imagine a life without their infant/child. Feelings of despair, loneliness and depression often occur (Armentrout, 2009;Laakso & Paunonen-Ilmonen, 2001). As bereaved parents become engulfed in their suffering, they spend a considerable amount of time talking about the deceased infant/child and keeping the deceased infant's/child's room unchanged (Bellali & Papadatou, 2006).…”

“…Depending on the circumstances surrounding the infant's or child's death, blame can be self-directed. Parents feel that their role is to protect their children from harm and parents who perceive that they could have done more to prevent the death experience self blame and guilt (Laakso & Paunonen-Ilmonen, 2001). In response to their grief, bereaved parents may rely on their religious or spiritual beliefs to obtain comfort, create meaning from the loss, and help in the healing process that will ultimately result in a resolution of their grief (Robinson et al, 2006;Lichtenthal, et al, 2010).…”

“…Bereaved mothers who chose to delay returning to work often relied on alcohol and drugs to cope with their grief especially if the loss was their only child. These negative behaviors were discarded as the negative feelings associated with their grief diminished (Laakso & Paunonen-Ilmonen, 2001). Limitation of the study was that bereaved parents were interviewed 1-3 years after the death but differentiation was not made between responses to grief and length of time since the death.…”