ABSTRACT
Maggie’s use of the term 'replacement baby’ needs some explanation. A replace ment baby is known in the field of psychotherapy as an infant bom within a year of the death of a child who would have been a year-old brother or sister. The earlier child would perhaps have been a still birth or would have died with in a few weeks of being born. A replacement baby therefore, in this instance Maggie, is understood as being born into a grief-stricken family. Any such family may move too quickly in trying to welcome the new child while still suffering greatly from the loss of the earlier one.
