Title: What the Loss of a Child Does to Parents, Psychologically and Biologically | Fatherly
Headings: What the Loss of a Child Does to Parents, Psychologically and Biologically
What the Loss of a Child Does to Parents, Psychologically and Biologically
Though parents mourning the death of a child experience classic psychological, biological, and social grief responses, there are unique challenges.
Biological Impacts: How the Death of a Child Changes a Parent’s Body
Psychological Impacts: How the Trauma of Child Loss Harms the Psyche
Predictors: How Age of the Child and Other Factors Impact the Trauma
Social Impacts: How the Loss of a Child Strengthens (Or Ruins) Families
Coping: How to Provide and Seek Comfort for Grieving Parents

Content: Others struggle to find meaning in life.” Biological Impacts: How the Death of a Child Changes a Parent’s Body
In 2018, Frank Infurna and colleagues looked at the general health and physical functioning of 461 parents who had lost children over the course of 13 years. “ We did see some decline, followed by a general bounce-back, or recovery, over time,” Infurna, who studies resilience to major stressors at Arizona State University, told Fatherly. Physical functioning was focused on one’s ability to complete various everyday tasks, and “we didn’t see much change in this,” Infurna recalls. But when he reviewed bereaved parents’ self-reports — whether they felt they got sick often, or whether they expected their health to improve or decline — he found poorer perceptions of health. ADVERTISEMENT
As with all major grief responses, the mental health trauma of losing a child can kick off physical symptoms, including stomach pains, muscle cramps, headaches, and even irritable bowel syndrome. A handful of studies have found more tenuous links between unresolved grief and immune disorders, cancer, and long-term genetic changes at the cellular level. One surprising impact, often seen among parents mourning the loss of a child, is known as the broken-heart syndrome — a condition that presents oddly like a textbook heart attack. Symptoms include “crushing chest, pain, ST-segment elevation on electrocardiography, and elevated cardiac enzyme markers on lab results,” Fuller says, citing her previously written work on the subject. “