When dreams die: parental experience after child death

Abstract

Introduction: Death of a child is considered as one of the greatest devastating failures that makes the continuation of life difficult for the parents. With child’s death, parents lose a part of themselves and a part of their future dreams, and their loss is extremely vast and extensive. Hence, the present study has been conducted for the purpose of describing the experiences of parents who have lost a child. Materials and Methods: This study used a qualitative approach through a phenomenological method. Sampling was based on the objective of the research and the method of interview was unstructured and conducted until the full data saturation. Information was gathered through interview with 23 fathers or mothers who had lost their child. Colaizzi’s method was used for data analysis. Results: Conducted interviews were analyzed. From the total 371 concept codes, 22 sub concepts along with 7 main concepts were identified. Main concepts include moving forward, mourn, desperation, need for support, consolation, abandoned, and mental impasse. Conclusion: Results of the current study show that the death of a child makes the continuation of life difficult and causes the creation of deep crises for parents; the results of these crises will be the creation of destructive influential reactions in their lives. Real understanding of mental condition of parents at the time of the loss child and then, a necessary step in improving the health of the parents.