This book offers helpful information for every stage of the grieving process and years beyond. Some of the Chapter titles are:
A Parent’s Lonely Grief
Grieving and Emotional Recovery
Physical Recovery
The Early Months
Affirming Your Baby
Painful Feelings
Resolution of Grief
Especially for Fathers
You and Your Partner
Your Family
Support Networks
The Subsequent Pregnancy
Coping During Subsequent Pregnancy
Raising Subsequent Children
Remembering Your Baby and Moving On
The first thing I like about this book is that it is organized in a way that you do not have to read the whole thing from beginning to end. It is very easy to find a chapter or sub-section that deals with whatever issue you may be struggling with at the time. I read this book about 4 months after losing Jackson. I did start at the beginning but I continue to go back and re-read many different chapters depending on how I’m feeling that day.
The second thing I really like about this book is that the author makes me feel understood. She not only identifies all the issues grieving parents face but she validates our feelings of guilt, responsibility, being deprived of a future with our baby, social isolation, jealousy, depression, resentment, anger and on and on. Reading this book I felt understood and validated and normal.
The best thing about the book is that it is filled with quotes from parents (mostly moms) who have lost a child. Every chapter has quotes relating to that topic. These moms share their most raw emotions and confess their deepest emotions. Reading their words helped me to know I am not alone on this journey toward healing. Most importantly, it helped me to know I will survive and life will be good again someday. They made it and I can make it and you can too.