Abstract
Six women described the lived experience of the traumatic death of their child. Common features included the importance of being heard, and the need to be kept informed during the aftermath of their loss from the procedural details to the post-mortem. Six key themes were identified, including isolating experience or absolute separation from others, self-protection: wearing an inauthentic grief mask, ongoing bond, embodied response, loss of meaning, and the pursuit of meaning. The traumatically bereaved mother’s experience highlights a paradox: the existential struggle with meaninglessness and despair while balancing a meaning-driven existence that reflects the drive to help others and keep the memory of their child alive.
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Notes
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In this context, resilience does not refer to the perspective of thriving from adversity, as in the posttraumatic growth literature, but to psychological growth or ‘strength’ (Calhoun et al. 2010).
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Harris, S. (2020). Motherhood and the Traumatic Death of One’s Child. In: Arnold-Baker, C. (eds) The Existential Crisis of Motherhood. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-56499-5_11
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