Abstract
Recently there has been more interest in the topics of bereavement and grief care after the loss of a family member in Japan. Because the infant and child mortality is at very low rate and caused suddenly in many cases, parents are unprepared to deal with the loss of a child. The grief of bereaved parents is particulary severe, complicated, and long lasting. In this article, we described the importance of grief care and how to help the family after the death of a child. To help grieving parents, we must deal with unique issues and the impacts after the loss of a child. The areas include : effects of family system, issues with surviving sibling, psychosomatic problems, as well as psychological grief response. Before any intervention, it is important that we assess the factors influencing the grief reaction, the degree of resolution of the grief, and the reason for failure to complete the mourning work. When grief care is useful support, the mourning process is facilitated and some psychosocial problems are decreased. We also discussed clinical implications for caregivers and directions for the future studies of bereavement.
