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Maternal grief: analysis and therapeutic recommendations

Janice Bell Meisenhelder1

  • 1School of Nursing, Emmanuel College, 400 The Fenway, Boston, Massachusetts, USA meisenhelderj@emmanuel.edu.

BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care
|November 26, 2020
PubMed

The following self-analysis contains key experiences of maternal grief over the course of the first 2 years following the death of a child, with specific examples and observations from bereaved mothers shared with the author. The references provide supporting evidence for commonality of the lived experience and observations. Therapeutic responses for clinicians give concrete direction for providing effective comfort. Self-care suggestions for mothers provide specific guidance for the readers. A 14-year retrospective epilogue puts the charged emotional description into a context of healing.

Keywords:
bereavementeducation and trainingfamily managementpsychological caresupportive caresurvivorship

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