Sibling loss - disenfranchised grief and forgotten mourners

Abstract

My first encounter with the experience of sibling loss was with a nurse administrator in a neonatal unit that I was interviewing for my dissertation on grief and bereavement. While examining the emergence of hospital protocols for perinatal loss, wondering why a particular set of individuals broke with standard practice to encourage interaction with dying and dead infants, I noted that these individuals had ‘sentinel experiences’, or specific experiences that allowed them to be more sensitive to the needs of grieving parents (Davidson, 2007). Asking her about why she fought so hard to establish compassionate protocols, this participant responded by saying: