ABSTRACT
Grief can seem quite overwhelming following the death of a baby, and parents are shocked at the depth of sadness they experience, worrying that they will never ever feel any better. Aware of the difficulty people have in knowing what is the best approach to take at this time, we set out to ascertain from the parents themselves what, in their case, was or was not supportive at different stages of the grieving process. In order to capture the sense of progression and the differences as well as the similarities, the authors report the data first for the early weeks and then for the rest of the year. For some parents it helped, too, when other people were not afraid to introduce the subject of the baby spontaneously, naturally and appropriately. In one case the parents were comforted when the staff sent letters as from the survivors saying that the babies missed the dead sibling.
