Surviving My First Year of Child Loss | Book

Follow online for publication updates

Why this book…

The death of a baby, whether through miscarriage, stillbirth or neonatal loss, or the death of an older child, is the worst experience a parent can endure. Parents often don’t know how – or if – they will survive such an earth-shattering event. The book, Surviving My First Year of Child Loss: Personal Stories from Grieving Parents, includes twenty-six heart-wrenchingly honest essays by parents who convey their personal challenges and the ways they coped during the first twelve months after losing a child.

Surviving My First Year of Child Loss

Personal Stories from Grieving Parents

Book contributors were asked to share personal and relational challenges they experienced in the first year of grief. The result is twenty-six heart-wrenchingly honest essays that communicate the individual way each parent coped during their first twelve months of loss.

At the core of each story is that parent’s personal path of resilience through hardship, despair and hopelessness. In this book, bereaved parents relate how they have found ways to continue to live with purpose – not just survive – without masking or glossing over the reality of their pain.

Who has written this book

Personal, Real and Recent Experiences

All contributors to Surviving My First Year of Child Loss (with only one exception) experienced the death of a child within five years prior to writing their submission. In fact, half the essays were written within the first 18 months of loss. The contributors’ child loss experience is still raw and very present, as the reader will no doubt surmise while engaging these stories.

Who this book is for

For Those Experiencing Pregnancy and Infant Loss, Stillbirth or the Death of a Child

Each person’s grief journey is unique as a fingerprint or a snowflake. – Earl Grollman

Surviving My First Year of Child Loss is specifically for parents living with the recent death of a child. In these pages, they will find stories they can relate to. This book will assure them they are not alone. Others have walked this path of grief. Others have faced the same challenges.

Why we wrote this book

A Book of Hope: Surviving My First Year of Child Loss

By reading these shared experiences of child loss, newly bereaved parents will begin to muster hope that they too will survive. In these stories, they will be reassured that they are not going crazy. They will be prompted to embrace self-care and find examples of creating meaning after loss. They will be shown how to embrace love and encouraged towards hope.

More than anything else, the Surviving My First Year of Child Loss project invites grieving parents to find support in a community they never intended to join.

Who else should read this book

Not Only for Bereaved Parents, But Also Those Who Love and Support Them

Not only does Surviving My First Year of Child Loss speak directly to newly bereaved parents, it helps those supporting grieving parents. The personal stories in the book communicate much of what a grieving parent is going through. Their fears, their emotions, their needs, and their hopes. In reading this book friends and family will gain an understanding of a grieving parent’s struggle, and how to best support families experiencing child loss.

Ultimately, the goal of this book – and indeed the Grieving Parents Support Network – is to help society gain a deeper understanding of child loss so that grieving parents are met with acceptance and support. – Nathalie Himmelrich

Healing by helping others heal

This project has provided as much healing to those who bravely embarked on the journey of writing their contribution as much as it will provide hope and healing to those who read the book. Our desire is to share our stories of grief and hope with other parents facing the heartbreak of child loss. We wish to come alongside newly bereaved parents and – with our written work – gently carry them forward along this life-long journey.

As a not for profit project, each book purchase, sponsored copies and direct donation helps us bring this book to the individuals who most need it – bereaved parents in the first year of grief. Your donation helps the charity arm of Grieving Parents Support Network provide sponsored copies of our book to hospitals, bereavement centres, grief retreats, and other not for profit organizations free of charge or at a drastically reduced cost.  We thank you for partnering with us to make this mission possible.

Surviving My First Year of Child Loss

Project Origin and Background

The latest of several books for bereaved parents published by the Grieving Parents Support Network, Surviving My First Year of Child Loss is edited by Nathalie Himmelrich. Nathalie is a relationship coach and grief recovery expert based near Zurich, Switzerland. A bereaved mother herself, Nathalie believes that relationships – intimate and to other support people – are the foundation for a healthy grieving experience.

Of 300 parents who expressed interested, twenty-six stories were selected for the book. The book is a compilation of individual stories written by members of the online support community. Contributors candidly share their stories of grief and a parent’s life after child loss. The book portrays their journey in search for hope.

Surviving My First Year of Child Loss Contributors

A Representative Community: child loss experiences in this book include…

• Child ages: miscarriage, pregnancy loss, stillbirth and neonatal loss, infant and toddler death, death of an adolescent and adult child
• Author genders: both male and female writers share their stories and unique grief journey
• Global origins: from New Zealand to Ireland to Canada and everywhere in between, a dozen individual countries are represented
• Profession: contributors are active in a variety of areas including healthcare, education, law, business, the arts, and community volunteerism

❥ Follow Surviving My First Year of Child Loss for publication updates and previews
¸.•´*¨`*•✿ Join the conversation at Grieving Parents Support Network