Customer Reviews

Hope is Like the Sun: Finding Hope and Healing After Miscarriage, Stillbirth, or Infant Death

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My baby was stillborn in the summer of 2008. I felt that this book focused on miscarriage and rarely mentioned stillbirth and infant loss - despite the fact that it is included in the title. If you are dealing with miscarriage, then this is a great book. If you're looking for help dealing with stillbirth then I suggest you keep looking. I feel stillbirth is a completely different situation.

There is no more poignant or painful loss to a parent than the loss of a child, whether it be by miscarriage, stillbirth or infant death. There are almost a million pregnancy miscarriages a year in the United States alone, and all too high record numbers of infant deaths. Hope Is Like The Sun: Finding Hope And Healing After Miscarriage, Stillbirth, Or Infant Death follows author Lisa Church and four of her close friends as they personally navigate the difficult passage through the grief of having a child die. The result is a unique volume offering similar couples a compendium of practical tips and emotional/spiritual encouragements that can only come from personal experience and an intimate expertise. Hope Is Like The Sun is strongly encouraged and highly recommended reading for anyone having to deal with the death of a child -- before or after one is born into the family and the world.

I have never had a miscarriage, but I have both friends and family who have had to endure the pain of pregnancy loss. I have to be honest in saying that I really had no idea what was involved in overcoming the grief associated with losing a child in the early stages of pregnancy. This book was extremely enlightening and helped me to understand exactly what women go through. It also gave me ideas on how to best support them. I wish I had this book 8 years ago.

In "Hope is Like the Sun", author Lisa Church reaches out to her readers as if she has known each and every one all of her life. Reading this book is like getting advice from a dear friend during a most trying and difficult time. And, not only does she relate with personal experiences but also details accounts of four of her closest friends who also have experienced losses themselves. The text is a support group in itself. The nicest thing about the book is it is written from a first hand perspective as opposed to a medical or scientific approach. Ms. Church does not try to explain things that often times can't be explained. She also goes to great lengths to validate the readers' feelings. And, as someone who has experienced the most devastating loss imaginable, it is a great comfort to know that someone else acknowledges my child as a person even though the rest of the world continues as if she never existed. Also, the feelings I have felt since the lost are foreign to most people I know. By reading "Hope is Like the Sun" and getting to see that the five women in the book all had similar feelings to my own, I felt that I wasn't isolated any longer and needed not make apologies for my sometimes erratic behavior that has resulted from the constant emotional rollercoaster I have faced since my loss. My appreciation to Lisa for her willingness to share her own personal grief voyage and reach out to others who have just begun their journeys with grief after the loss of a child is immeasurable.