Perinatal Loss

THURS., APR. 13, 1995, 6:24 AM
FARM, STUDY

This is the title of the presentation for which you are responsible, early next week. Though you’ve hastily put together an outline you don’t really know what you’ll say. So… don’t you want to hear what I have to say about this theme? It could change some of what you eventually present, and you know this to be true, o son.

The death of a fetus or an infant can be quite a traumatic event for many in your culture. In some instances the soul already has entered the body and its life experience thus is quite short. There still may be some gain from the experience. Remember that time is merely an earth “artifact,” so the length of any earth experience is only a minor factor in its importance.

With some parents and family who have such an experience there is immediate acceptance that this is My Will, as the Christian Triune God. They wonder why, usually, with conclusions ranging from “I just reluctantly allowed it to happen” to “I wanted that little soul back, for reasons of My own.” In other culture’s… and with a few in your own… there would be the question, “What have I done to deserve this?”, the focus being on self as a cause rather than on God and the little one alone.

Actually, quite often I use such a happening as a test of faith. The death of Peter was at least a minor test for you. A son died, and that hurt, but you still had four other sons needing your love and guidance. Yet you accepted that I was involved in some way, and that Peter just got to move on to “a better place” sooner than expected.

For those who have little or no faith in Me death of an infant or child can be quite confusing. There may even be some early attachment to a fetus that aborts, spontaneously, and some sadness for the loss of an expected child. But if some actual bonding with a young child has taken place there is genuine grief over the loss, for self, but no clear sense of what this has meant for the child. With no belief in an after-life or in continuing life the death seems to be just cruel chance.

For many with strong faith in Me, as Almighty God or as Allah, it is accepted that this is My Will and that the child is especially blessed to be with Me again so soon. I like this kind of faith, and those who display it fully and “naturally” (without struggling) are often rewarded in this life and surely in the life everlasting.

As you will indicate, most of those in cultures without much “modern” medical development will not become “attached” to a child until it is fairly certain that it has survived the various threats to early life. The Lore of Life tells such folk that some will survive and some will not, and there isn’t much they can do about it. Thus, their expectations for a child’s life do not “kick in” until some age when continuing life can be expected.