Book Review: Empty Cradle, Broken Heart: Surviving the Death of Your Baby by Deborah L. Davis, Ph.D

It is every parent's worse fear: the death of their baby. Whether it happens before or after birth, it can be a devastating event. Davis offers a guide to coping with the grief and other emotions that parents commonly experience after the death of their baby.

In today's society, the death of a baby is a devastating event that most people cannot fathom. For the parents of the deceased infant, the way society refuses to put importance on your grief and the death of your infant can be devastating. According to Davis, today's society views death as something to avoid at all costs. People do not talk about it, and rarely do they have contact with it. While in the past, family members died at home surrounded by loved ones, and their bodies were prepared for burial by their family, now people are dying in hospitals and nursing homes. Davis reiterates, "Death has been taken away from the home and family and placed in modern, sterile institutions." With people in today's society having so little experience with death, it is no surprise that many people simply have no idea how to react to the death of an infant. Thus, the grieving parents are often left feeling isolated, abandoned, and lonely.

Davis offers these grieving parents a compassionate, sensitive guide to exploring and coping with their grief. She understanding written in every word, she explains to the readers what the grief process looks like, and what they should expect to go through. She explains the numerous emotions that many parent's experience in their grief, and the reasons for these emotions. After explaining the grief process itself, she then takes the time to explain how to resolve your grief, and how to support your family and loved ones while grieving. Davis also offers an invaluable section just for grieving fathers, a section devoted to deciding to have more children, and a section for remembering your baby while moving on.

Throughout the book, Davis adds stories and experiences from mothers and fathers who have lost their babies, helping to ease the feeling of isolation that many parent's might feel during their grieving process. She also adds numerous, invaluable resources that parents can turn to for support and counseling during their grieving process.

In a society where grieving parents are not supported as well as they should be, Davis' book offers a guide filled with compassion and understanding. A must read not only for parent who have experienced a loss, but for those hoping to support the parents in their grief.