Good Grief: When Grief Meets Grace - Samara Brennan

The stillbirth of a baby is an unforeseen tragedy that tears at the very core of a parent. How does one move forward after such a loss? How can God reveal himself in such a time? What do you do with the crushing ache and unanswered questions about the death of a baby? Good Grief: When Grief Meets Grace narrates a mother’s journey after just such a loss. In spite of her overwhelming grief, she experienced abundant peace and found that the Lord is not absent in the darkness of infant loss. Rather, he meets us in our grief and restores our hearts with perfect grace.

From a reader: "An honest and uplifting journey of both loss, spiritual growth and understanding. I found myself inspired by the authors wisdom and understanding in the face of such tragic loss."

​Unexpecting - Rachel Lewis
 
When your baby dies, you find yourself in a life you never expected. And even though pregnancy and infant loss are common, they're not common to you. Instead, you feel like a stranger in your own body, surrounded by well-meaning people who often don't know how to support you. What you need during this time is not a book offering easy answers. You need a safe place to help you navigate what comes next, such as: 

· Coping with a postpartum body without a baby in your arms.
· Facing social isolation and grief invalidation.
· Wrestling with faith when you feel let down by God.
· Dealing with the overwhelming process of making everyday decisions.
· Learning to move forward after loss.
· Creating a legacy for your child.

​Empty Cradle, Broken Heart: Surviving the Death of Your Baby - Deborah L. Davis, PhD
 
The heartache of miscarriage, stillbirth, or infant death affects thousands of U.S. families every year.  Empty Cradle, Broken Heart gives reassurance to parents who struggle with anger, guilt, and despair after such tragedy.  Deborah Davis encourages grieving and makes suggestions for coping.  The book includes information on issues such as the death of one or more babies from a multiple birth, pregnancy interruption, and the questioning of aggressive medical intervention.  There is also a special chapter for fathers as well as a chapter on "progressive parenting" to help anxious parents enjoy their precious living children.  Doctors, nurses, relatives, friends, and other support persons can gain special insight.  Most importantly, parents facing the death of a baby will find necessary support in this gentle guide.  If reading this book moves you to cry, try to accept this reaction.  Your tears merge with those of other grieving parents.  You are not alone.

One in Four: Shifting the Balance on Pregnancy Loss - Barbara Toppin, MD
 
In One in Four, Dr. Barbara Toppin reveals the blind eye turned on one of the most prevalent causes of pregnancy loss: thrombophilias, or clotting disorders. Affecting nearly 42% of the population, thrombophilias often go undetected in women, yet are a primary cause of miscarriages. At the same time, they can be treated easily and systematically, as Dr. Toppin shows in her thriving practice and in this book. One in Four shows how thousands of women each year are able to keep their pregnancies under Dr. Toppin's expert guidance—and why you deserve to be as educated as possible about your pregnancy and the choices you make for your and your future family's health.

Miscarriage: A Book for Parents - Joy Johnson
A Centering Corporation Resource

​A Note From Joy and Marv: "The shock and fear of miscarriage can be overwhelming.  You have severe physical pain, and you realize there's nothing you can do.  Your whole world is thrown off balance.  You lose your pregnancy.  You lose your baby.  You lose your self-control and you even lose something of yourself. When you have a miscarriage you have a very real and powerful grief.  It may be one of your first encounters with death.  It is certainly something you never forget. As we have traveled through the country doing workshops, we have become convinced that the experience of miscarriage is one of the country's great unresolved griefs. This book was given to you by someone who cares, and we hope it will be valuable to you as you begin to experience your own grief and the grief of others."

After Miscarriage: A Journey to Healing - Lori Leo
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On August 13, 2000, just months after her honeymoon, Lori suffered her first miscarriage. After four miscarriages in less than two years, she struggled to find peace each day. As she suffered in silence with her grief, she was determined to find comfort and hope. Lori’s passion for horses and her faith helped her escape the emotional turmoil only to discover how these passions assisted her journey to healing. This realization exposed her to a new world she may otherwise have never known. Her tenacious desire to have a child led her to appreciate the beauty and gift of adoption as well as experience the instant unconditional love that you can feel for a child.​

Grieving the Child I Never Knew: A Devotional for Comfort in the Loss of Your Unborn or Newly Born Child - Kathe Wunnenberg
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When the anticipation of your child’s birth turns into the grief of miscarriage, tubal pregnancy, stillbirth, or early infant death, no words on earth can ease your loss. But there is strength and encouragement in the wisdom of others who have been there and found that God’s comfort is real.
Having experienced three miscarriages and the death of an infant son, Kathe Wunnenberg knows the deep anguish of losing a child. Grieving the Child I Never Knew was born from her personal journey through sorrow. It is a wise and tender companion for mothers whose hearts have been broken—mothers whose dreams have been shattered and who wonder how to go on.
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This devotional collection will help those mothers grieve honestly and well. With seasoned insights and gentle questions, it invites the reader to present her hurts before God, and to receive over time the healing that He alone can – and will – provide. Each devotion includes:

• Scripture passage and prayer
• Steps Toward Healing questions
• Space for journaling
• Readings for holidays and special occasions also included

Loved Baby: 31 Devotions Helping You Grieve and Cherish Your Child after Pregnancy Loss - Sarah Philpott, PhD
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Close to one in four American women experience the silent grief of pregnancy loss. Loved Baby offers much-needed support to women in the middle of psychological and physiological grief as a result of losing an unborn child through miscarriage, stillbirth, or ectopic pregnancy loss.

In Loved Baby, Sarah Philpott gently walks alongside women as they experience the misguided shame, isolation, and crushing despair that accompany the turmoil of loss. With brave vulnerability Sarah shares her own story of loss and the stories of others, offering Christ-filled hope and support to women navigating grief.
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This compassionate devotional offers: 

• Real talk about loss 
• Christ-filled comfort 
• Tips to manage social media, reconnect with your partner, and nourish your soul 
• Knowledge that your child is in heaven 
• Strategies to walk through grief 
• Ways to memorialize your loss

Whether your loss is recent or not, Loved Baby can be your companion as you move from the darkness of grief toward the light of hope.

That Side of Heaven: Walking the Journey of Loss, Grief, and Healing After Miscarriage -  Heather Butler
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That Side of Heaven chronicles Heather’s journey of loss, grief, and healing after multiple miscarriages. With honesty and vulnerability, she addresses many of the fears and questions that emerge after miscarriage. Every raw detail of her story validates the pain of losing a baby, while also attesting to the hope and healing she found in God. At the end of each chapter, you will find the following sections: 

• Stories from other loss-mommas
• God’s Promise
• A Prayer
• Gently guided questions with space to write

That Side of Heaven offers a hurting momma comfort and camaraderie, while giving plenty of breathing room and permission to grieve in her own way.

​Miscarriage: A Man's Book - Rick Wheat
A Centering Corporation Resource
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from Rick: "I hope what you read in this booklet will help you with your own grief, help you share and understand your wife's grief, and help you know what you can do to better navigate the difficult days which lie ahead.  I've been where you are.  What you read here is based on my own experiences. Much of this book is about your wife and her grief.  However, as you read, I believe you'll find yourself in these pages.  Every word you read about your wife's grief applies to you.  What you read about your wife's  needs might remind you of your own needs.  And what you read about protecting your relationship will certainly be for your benefit as well as for hers."

​Grieving Dads: To the Brink and Back - Kelly Farley
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Grieving Dads: To the Brink and Back is a collection of candid stories from grieving dads that were interviewed over a two year period. The book offers insight from fellow members of, in the haunting words of one dad, “this terrible, terrible club,” which consists of men who have experienced the death of a child. This book is a collection of survival stories by men who have survived the worst possible loss and lived to tell the tale. They are real stories that pull no punches and are told with brutal honesty. Men that have shared their deepest and darkest moments. Moments that included thoughts of suicide, self-medication and homelessness. Some of these men have found their way back from the brink while others are still standing there, stuck in their pain.The core message of Grieving Dads is “you’re not alone.” It is a message that desperately needs to be delivered to grieving dads who often grieve in silence due to society’s expectations.

​The Fall of Freddie the Leaf: A Story of Life for All Ages - Leo Buscaglia, Ph.D.

The Fall of Freddie the Leaf touches children and adults alike, illustrating the delicate balance between life and death. A warm, thought-provoking story about how Freddie and his companion leaves change with the passing seasons, finally falling to the ground with winter's snow, is an inspiring allegory illustrating the delicate balance between life and death.

We Were Gonna Have a Baby, But We Had an Angel Instead - Pat Schwiebert
A Centering Corporation Resource
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​Expresses the excitement and anticipation children have while waiting for their new sibling to arrive, and the sudden, life-changing nature of an unexpected loss. Narrated by a young boy who shares his and his family's disappointment and grief over the loss of their baby. 

​Another Baby? Maybe...Thirty Questions on Pregnancy After Loss - Sherokee Ilse with Maribeth Wilder Doerr
A Centering Corporation Resource
 
Provides suggestions and encouragement to bereaved parents contemplating or experiencing a pregnancy after miscarriage, infant loss or the death of an older child. Written with Maribeth Doerr, Founder of Pen-Parents. Addresses frequently asked questions about subsequent pregnancies such as, How long do I need to wait to try again? What if I can’t get pregnant again? and When the baby is born will I finally be happy?

Strong and Tender: A Guide For the Father Whose Baby Has Died - Pat Schwiebert
A Centering Corporation Resource

​From the Introduction: "Fatherhood has taken an unexpected turn in your life.  Your baby has died, your partner needs you in a whole new way, and there are many decisions to make.  You are in a state of shock and disbelief - the beginning of a grief process that will be with you and your family for a long time.  And you are expected to be strong."

​A book especially for fathers, this is a collection of insights, helpful hints and tender thoughts to give a father strength during the dark times of grief following his baby’s death. For too long fathers have been the forgotten grievers. By giving him this special book you tell him you also recognize his loss. Includes: taking care of yourself, how men grieve, going back to work, anger, and your next pregnancy.

Grieving Grandparents - Lori Leininger & Sherokee Ilse
A Centering Corporation Resource

​A practical exploration of the anguish, sorrow and sense of helplessness that grandparents feel when their beloved grandchild dies.  Critical information is shared to aid grandparents as they attempt to comfort and support their children who suffer, while they also learn to cope with their own grief.  Many specific examples will make a difference in their children's lives.

Three Minus One: Stories of Parents' Love & Loss - Brooke Warner and Sean Hanish

A collection of intimate, soul-baring stories and artwork by parents who have lost a child to stillbirth, miscarriage, or neonatal death, inspired by the film Return to Zero. 

​The loss of a child is unlike any other, and the impact that it has on the mother, the father, their family, and their friends is devastating—a shockwave of pain and guilt that spreads through their entire community. But the majority of those affected, especially mothers, often suffer their pain in silence, convinced that their grief and trauma is theirs to bear alone. This anthology of raw memoirs, heartbreaking stories, truthful poems, beautiful painting, and stunning photography from the parents who have suffered child loss offers insight into this unique, devastating and life-changing experience—breaking the silence and offering a ray of hope to the many parents out there in search of answers, understanding, and healing.