When a Baby Dies: A Handbook for Healing and Helping

I bought this book a decade ago when I was a new labor and delivery nurse, and continue to refer to it. It is a very practical guide to interacting with people going through an unimaginably sad event, and addresses how providers can give their patients research-based advice, as well as provide compassionate care without burning themselves out. I recommend this book for anyone who deals with pregnant women and their significant other, new parents, and their social support.

This book can help the bereaved parents as well as the professionals who support them. Families who have experienced miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, stillbirth, newborn death and loss of multiples tell their stories. Chapters include: Grief, Grief within a Relationship, Saying Good-Bye, Reactions Of Others, Involving Children and Grandparents' Grief. The last few chapters help the physician, funeral director, and clergy to know what to say and do when a baby dies.

This was the first book I read after my baby was diagnosed with a fatal birth defect. I highly recommend it to anyone--parent, friend, or professional--who might have to deal with infant loss. The book talks about the grieving process, ways to find emotional support, and the ways a parent may find of memorializing a baby. There are suggestions for doctors, clergy, and funeral home staff. This book has many personal stories as well as general guidelines and ideas, keeping in mind that just as everyone would have parented their babies differently, so they will grieve and remember differently. Quite thorough book dealing with a subject many would rather not dwell on, and with many many excellent suggestions.

This book was one of the first books I read after my daughter's stillbirth. It is a very good book because you can read the stories of babies who were lost to ectopic pregnancy, miscarriage, stillbirth and neonatal death and how their parents have learned to cope. This book also helps friends, family and professionals (doctors, nurses, midwives, clergy, and funeral directors) to understand how to help the bereaved parents. This is a book that everyone should read.