[Coping with grief following perinatal death: a multifaceted and natural process]

Abstract

Coping with grief following perinatal death is a natural process that every individual experiences in his own personal and unique way. Parents go through varying emotions in the months following the death of their baby. Empathic support and understanding, both from the parents' social network and from professional caregivers, have a positive effect on the mourning process. Parents benefit from individually focused counseling and assistance in making their own choices with regard to saying goodbye and the way in which they will cope with their grief in the immediate future, as parents, within the family and in relation to the people in their surroundings. It is recommended that the attention for the parents and their lifeless child and all care behaviour be the same, as much as possible, as after the birth of a living child.