The death of an infant is perhaps the most difficult and wrenching tragedy any family can imagine. You don't expect a baby to die. Babies mean the beginning of life, not the end. It's that contradiction that makes the death of a baby so alien to our understanding, so difficult to believe and accept.
When a baby dies, a bit of hope dies too, a bit of our dream breaks away, a bit of our future is erased before ever being written. Besides the physical loss, there is an emotional loss and a loss of all that a new life promises. This is true whether the baby died as a newborn or before birth due to miscarriage, stillbirth, or other reasons. Society has been slow to recognize that the impact on the parents can be the same, regardless of when the loss occurred. Parents' grief over a miscarriage is as valid and real as their grief over the loss of a full-term baby.
The March of Dimes has a limited number of bereavement materials available at no charge for parents or other family members in the United States who have experienced the loss of a baby between conception and the first month of life. The materials include information available on this Web site, plus additional resources. They are available in English and Spanish. The envelope in which the materials are sent contains no information indicating that the contents address bereavement.
Delivery time is 2-3 weeks.
Click here to order a free copy.
Health care providers and others interested in purchasing the bereavement materials should call the March of Dimes Fulfillment Center at (800) 367-6630.
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