We wish to extend our sympathy to you on the death of your child.
This section is designed to help you at this sad and difficult time, particularly with some of the practical and official matters. When a child dies there are many decisions and arrangements to be made. Unfortunately these often have to be made at a time of great personal distress.
- Seeing your Child
- Practical and Legal Matters
- Registration
- Arranging a Funeral
- Your Feelings and Other Children
- The Stages of Grief
- Contacts and Organisations Offering Help
- Further Reading
To each individual, the loss of a loved one is a unique and traumatic event; there is no standard measure of the pain of that loss and we all need to come to terms with it in our own way. Yet there is a recognised pattern to grieving and this booklet aims to guide you through the individual stages of grief to show how healing can take place. There is also a list of organisations that can offer support and comfort.
A child is many things: a part of self and the loved partner; a representation of the generations past; the genes of the forebears; the hopes of the future; a source of love, pleasure, even narcissistic delight; a tie or a burden; and sometimes a symbol of the worst part of the self and others.
Beverley Raphael, 1984
The Anatomy of Bereavement. Hutchinson, London.
