ABSTRACT
The loss of any close relationship can leave a person feeling bereft, but as we have seen from the background literature, the loss of a child strikes 'even more deeply into the very being and integrity of the mourner.' Both parents are mourning and may be unavailable to each other. Nevertheless parents were encouraged to talk about the effect of the death of the child in so far as they felt it had changed their own thinking and influenced their relationships, at least in part. Other deaths or life-threatening illnesses were cited by a number of parents. At the time of the first interviews, one young father had died, and in four other families (7%) close relatives or very close friends had died. In one family the mother's father and grandmother had both died during her pregnancy. A strong impression was conveyed that the new pregnancy had helped them to move on.
