Most bereaved parents experience one or more of the following:

• Feel physically exhausted.

• Have difficulty sleeping – can’t sleep or can’t stop sleeping and don’t want to get up.

• Feel a tightness in the throat, heaviness in the chest, or a lump in the stomach like a rock.

• Have an empty feeling with appetite loss – or eat too much.

• Wander aimlessly - forget a thought in the middle of a sentence, neglect to finish tasks, feel restless, look for activity, but can’t concentrate.

• Have respiratory reactions – excessive yawning, gasping, hyperventilating.

• Experience feelings of depression or anxiety - think they are going crazy or losing their mind; feel really sad.

• Say to oneself, “If only I had…”

• Keep asking, “Why?”

• Feel they don’t want to go on – “What’s the point?”

• Feel the loss isn’t real, that the child will return.

• Look for the child in a crowd or see reminders unexpectedly.

• Need to tell and retell and remember things about the child and experience of death.

• Can’t stop crying or can’t cry – or cry at unexpected times.

All these reactions are natural and normal.

It is important not to deny one’s feelings, but to learn to express them. Realizing that you are not alone in having these reactions is helpful. One’s balance is regained slowly through understanding and working through the grief process.

You are not alone. We offer monthly support groups, and hope you will join us. There are also a list of procured resources to help you navigate this time.