As medical students and residents, we have all grappled with patient death and dying at some point in our training. These experiences often remain with us, informing our clinical practice, our personal wellbeing, and the ways in which we build…
Children's nurses report feeling unprepared when caring for children with life-limiting conditions and their families, while the value of including service users in the provision of nursing education is increasingly recognised. This small-scale…
Following an unexpected pediatric death, survivors undergo unique trauma. Medical examiners (MEs) evaluate most of these deaths. We evaluated the bereavement support available to survivors in the Chicagoland area following a pediatric death. We had…
Abstract Perinatal loss is a devastating event for any mother. What is often overlooked is a mothers continued ability to lactate following the death of her child. Donor breast milk is a commodity highly sought after given its value for feeding sick…
This is the intertwined story of three unique individuals—each of us parents, researchers, givers and takers—who met and changed each other’s lives, whilst simultaneously struggling to comprehend and make meaning out of our own personal losses. After…
Context: Loss of a child to a life-limiting condition (LLC) is 1 of the most traumatic life events for parents. Research focusing on fathers' experiences is in its infancy. Objectives: Using a meta-ethnographic approach, we systematically reviewed…
BACKGROUND: Legacy building interventions are used in pediatric healthcare settings to help families cope with difficult healthcare experiences and typically reserved for intentional use at or near the end of a child's life. However, little is known…
OBJECTIVE: This study explored the care experiences of parents whose pregnancy was diagnosed with a fatal fetal anomaly following the legalisation of termination of pregnancy in 2019 in Ireland., METHODS: A qualitative study using in-depth…
Fetal neurology is a rapidly evolving and expanding field. Discussions about diagnosis, prognosis, treatment options, and goals of care often begin in the antenatal period. However, there are inherent challenges to fetal counseling of neurological…
Abstract Context: Bereavement is an individuated, nuanced experience, and its expression is different for each parent who has cared for a dying child. Evidence highlights support is valuable to navigate this loss. Objectives: To evaluate a…
Studying perinatal death needs to involve cultural beliefs influencing women's perceptions and responses to illuminate their grief journey following the loss of their baby. There is an urgent need to provide a deep understanding in this area that…
Background: Stillbirth and neonatal death are devastating pregnancy outcomes with long-lasting psychosocial consequences for parents and families, and wide-ranging economic impacts on health systems and society. It is essential that parents and…
OBJECTIVES: The loss of a child is a devastating event, and bereaved parents often suffer intense and long-lasting grief reactions and are at risk for psychological symptoms. More knowledge about how parents cope with grief may improve the support to…
Context: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has impacted most elements of daily life, including the provision of support after a child's death and the experience of parental bereavement.Objectives: This study aims to examine ways in which COVID-19…
CONTEXT: The death of a child from cancer is a devastating event, placing bereaved parents at risk for both physical and psychosocial morbidities. Despite growing awareness of these outcomes and increased hospital-based support, bereaved parents…
Background Memory making is the process of creating mementos of a child with a life-limiting condition, who may be at or near end of life, providing a tangible and visual connection to the child who has died. Acorns memory making work already…
Introduction: The experience of bereavement is associated with severe physical, psychological, social and spiritual reactions in the parents of children with cancer. Because of that, the families of these children need to receive bereavement…
INTRODUCTION: The loss of a child in a family is a painful experience. Despite this, most studies focus on the grieving experience of parents. Our understanding of sibling bereavement therefore remains underexplored. This study aims to address this…
Background and Aims: Grief in parents has been described as a very intense long-lasting experience, characterized by deep sadness, and social isolation, therefore, the recommendation of scientific societies in pediatrics is to provide bereavement…
Parents that accompany their children in end-of-life care until death go through a devastating, complex and vulnerable situation, which is experienced in a unique way and with individual needs, given the specificity of the palliative care setting in…
BACKGROUND: Working in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) exposes nurses to intense and recurrent experiences with loss. Such experiences may result in unresolved grief or despair among these providers. Although previous studies have explored…
BACKGROUND: Children's hospices provide a range of family-centred care services, including bereavement support. Not all hospices provide specific services for grandparents. AIM: To explore how a hospice-based bereavement support group supported…
Perinatal medicine is confronted by a growing number of complex fetal conditions that can be diagnosed prenatally. The evolution of potentially life-prolonging interventions for the baby before and after birth contributes to prognostic uncertainty.…
As we have traversed the last 2 years of the COVID-19 pandemic juxtaposed against an increased awakening to the realities of racial inequities in society and health care, the grief of Black individuals and communities has largely been…
BACKGROUND: The grieving process following perinatal loss caused by life-limiting conditions presents some particularities associated with the family's culture and the symbolic relationship with the deceased. OBJECTIVE: To reflect on the symbolic…
BACKGROUND: This study examined care needs and utilisation of psychosocial support services among parents of children who had received specialist paediatric palliative care, as well as the relationship between need fulfilment and grief. Possible…
To enhance understanding of parental relationships following the loss of a child, a questionnaire was sent to members of Norwegian bereavement support organizations. The sample consisted of 175 couples. Using the Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS), we…
BACKGROUND: Prior research has demonstrated that the presence of regret and unfinished business is associated with poorer adjustment in bereavement. Though there is a growing literature on these constructs among caregivers of adult patients, the…
Historically, men’s experiences of grief following pregnancy loss and neonatal death have been under-explored in comparison to women. However, investigating men’s perspectives is important, given potential gendered differences concerning grief…
Purpose Research shows that knowledge about mental health status, both protective and risk factors, is limited in cancer-bereaved parents. The study aimed to investigate (1) the extent of psychological distress in bereaved parents 2–8 years after the…
CONTEXT: The death of a child from cancer is a devastating event, placing bereaved parents at risk for both physical and psychosocial morbidities. Despite growing awareness of these outcomes and increased hospital-based support, bereaved parents…
OBJECTIVES: To examine parents' perceptions of nursing care needs; including specific concerns, preferences and supportive actions for themselves and their dying child during and following the withdrawal of life support in the paediatric intensive…
BACKGROUND: Children's hospices provide a range of services for babies, children and young people who have a life-limiting or life-threatening condition, including care after death in specialist 'cool bedrooms'. Care after death is a challenging but…
Context Many pediatric hospitals offer legacy interventions for families to promote coping and support grief prior to and following the death of a child. Despite this practice, parent perceptions of the value of legacy activities are not well…
BACKGROUND: Bereavement after the death of a child is devastating and associated with worse physical and psychosocial well-being in parents. Evidence suggests that parents desire and benefit from support provided by other bereaved parents. To foster…
This study explored bereaved mothers' responses to the death of a child from cancer, with a focus on identifying adaptive and complicated grief reactions. To understand the unique meaning of their loss, in-depth interviews were conducted with 13…
BACKGROUND: Although perinatal deaths are still a common pregnancy outcome in developing countries, little is known about the effect perinatal death has on fathers. OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to understand and describe the meaning of…
