Bereavement Support
Overview
First Candle Resources:
- A 24-hour grief line. Grief counseling any time day or night for a family member in need, offering one-on-one support and access to materials and local support services. Call 1-800-221-7437.
- Peer-to-peer online support groups. A safe and supportive environment for individuals and families to talk about pregnancy and infant loss. Members connect and find an empathetic outlet for their feelings of grief, anger, anxiety, and depression, sharing personal experiences and offering one another emotional comfort and moral support.
Featured Resources
From Hurt to Healing: Dealing with the Death of Your Baby. (2008). March of Dimes.
Overview of grief related to pregnancy and newborn loss, includes coping strategies, access to bereavement materials, fact sheets, and resource organizations.
Bereavement Support Services: Resources. (2010). Resource Center. From Helping Babies, Healing Families: A Program Manual and Trainer's Guide for Sudden and Unexpected Infant/Child Death and Pregnancy Loss. Resources for parents, families, and professionals; bereaved children; child care providers; faith communities; and cultural and ethnic groups; plus multimedia resources and online support.
For Families, Friends, and Children
Books for Children on Dealing with Death. (2013) Resource Center.
This bibliography is intended to help parents or caregivers navigate children's questions that are likely to come up after the death of a younger sibling from sudden infant death.
After Sudden Infant Death: Facing Anniversaries, Holidays and Special Events. (2005). Resource Center.
Information and strategies for grieving parents as they approach special family gatherings and holidays.
The Death of a Child, the Grief of the Parents: A Lifetime Journey. (2011). Resource Center. This PDF booklet is a resource on the process of grief, describing bereavement as a set of tasks for the bereaved. Topics covered include factors that may interfere with the grief process, sudden infant death syndrome, fathers, families needing additional support, non-traditional families, ways to comfort a grieving parent, ways that help parents cope and heal, and recommended resources.
This PDF booklet discusses common and individual characteristics of parental grief, the unique grief of parents who lose an infant to SUID/SIDS, the special nature of a father’s grief, the impact of grief on special parenting situations, and how family and friends can comfort grieving parents.
It also includes resources for families to share with their children.
The Grieving Child: Helping Children Cope When an Infant Dies. (2011). Resource Center.
This PDF booklet is a resource on common reactions that children of different ages exhibit when an infant dies and how to help these children.
This booklet is intended as a resource for parents, child care providers, and other adults who must explain the death of a young sibling or friend to children and help them grieve. It discusses the nature of grief in children, the importance of allowing children to go through the normal grief process, common emotional reactions of children to death and loss, the unique effects of a sudden unexpected infant death in children, what children need to know when a SIDS loss occurs, how to seek support services, inclusion of children in funerals and family rituals.
Includes tables showing from birth to teen on how each group react to death and help guidelines, selected organizations that provide support and services to bereaved children, list of resources to help children cope with loss, references, and a list of resources that provide support and services to bereaved children.
For Providers
Podcast: Home Visiting and Grief Counseling. (2008). Resource Center.
Discussion with two Tomorrow’s Child/Michigan SIDS bereavement support nurses about providing home visits to families who are grieving after the loss of a pregnancy or the death of an infant.
When an Infant Dies: Cross Cultural Expressions of Grief and Loss III. (2007). National Fetal-Infant Mortality Review Program Bulletin.
Cultural traditions of Hmong, African-American, and Jewish families grieving the loss of an infant. Previous issues cover Latino, Native-American, African-American, and Muslim cultures (I) and African American, French and English Caribbean, Hispanic/Latino, Chinese, and Ojibwa cultures (II).
Organizations
Center for Loss in Multiple Birth
Information for parents, friends, and relatives about the loss of a twin, triplet, or higher order multiples; discussion of subsequent pregnancies; a bibliography and links to other resources. Some of the information is provided in Spanish, French, Chinese, and Russian.
Compassionate Friends
Brochures, local chapters, events, conferences, and an online video, After a Child Dies.
First Candle
Consumer and professional materials available to order online and a state-by-state list of grief resources. Also provides bilingual (English and Spanish) grief counselors 24 hours a day, 7 days a week toll free at (800) 221-7437.
M.I.S.S. Foundation
International organization that provides immediate and ongoing support to grieving families, empowerment through community volunteerism opportunities, public policy and legislative education, and programs to reduce infant and toddler death through research and education. The organization also provides prevention information and workshops and seminars on a variety of grief- and therapy-related topics. This Web site is also available in Spanish.
Pregnancy Loss and Infant Death Alliance
Nationwide collective community of parents and health professionals. Offers an annotated list of materials, organizations, and Web sites, updated annually; and practice guidelines with specific suggestions for providing the compassionate care put forth by PLIDA position statements on offering the infant to bereaved parents and when parents want to hold their infant.
Finding Other Resource Center Materials
- Selected Resources for Grieving Parents, Their Families, Friends, and Other Caregivers. (2007).
Consumer and professional publications, journal articles, religious books, Spanish materials, organizations, journals and newsletters, publishers, and electronic resources.
July 2009; Updated March 2011; Updated January 2021; Updated November 2022