Grief

Grief is a multi-faceted response to loss. Although conventially focused on the emotional response to loss, it also has a physical, cognitive, behavioural, social and philosophical dimensions. Common to human experience is the death of a loved one, be they friend, family, or other. While the terms are often used interchangeably, bereavement often refers to the state of loss, and grief to the reaction to loss. Losses can range from loss of employment, pets, status, a sense of safety, order, possessions, to the loss of the people nearest to us. Our response to loss is varied and researchers have moved away from "cookie cutter" views of grief, that is that people move through an orderly and predictable series of responses to loss to one that considers the wide variety of responses that are influenced by personality, family, culture and spiritual and religious beliefs and practices.

Loss of a Child

Loss of a child can take the form of a loss in infancy such as stillbirth or neonatal death,

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SIDS, or the death of an older child. In all cases, parents find the grief devastating and while

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persons may rate the death of a spouse as first in traumatic life events, the death of a child holds greater risk factors. This loss also bears a lifelong process: one does not get 'over' the loss but instead learns to assimilate and live with the death. Intervention and comforting support can make all the difference to the survival of a parent in this type of grief but the risk factors are great and may include family breakup or suicide. Feelings of guilt, almost always unfounded, are pervasive, and the dependent nature of the relationship disposes parents to a variety of problems as they seek to cope with this great loss. This, coupled with normal experiences of grief, can be overwhelming.

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