ABSTRACT
Bereavement is the process that includes grief and mourning. Grief is a normal
reaction to intense sorrow over the loss of a significant person, or object, or part of
the self, or of a previous stage of the life cycle. Death of course is not the only loss we
need to mourn, although it is likely to be the greatest. Women who have experi-
enced a miscarriage, stillbirth, hysterectomy or mastectomy also need to grieve. The
loss of independence, through chronic disease, redundancy, being uprooted from
one country to another, or even the death of a treasured pet needs to go through the
grieving process. All loss requires a period of mourning and adjustment. Otherwise,
as our biography is our biology (our emotional and psychological history is imprinted
in the physical) there is a danger that long-term health problems will ensue.2 In
many respects we have been programmed to deal with loss from an early age
because we go through many difficult stages and changes in our lifetime. Hopefully
in time we will have gained the emotional skill and experience to deal with greater
loss.
