Perinatal and Pediatric Bereavement

Mount Sinai Health System provides bereavement services for families who have experienced losses during any stage of their pregnancy, infancy, or childhood. You can contact our Program to connect with a Bereavement social worker who can assess how to guide you best and support you and your family through your grieving process.

When a pregnancy ends in a loss or a child dies, you and your family may experience many emotions, including fear, guilt, shame, anger, confusion, numbness, and sadness. If you already have children, they may express their reactions to the loss differently depending on their age and/or their emotional stage of development.

Our Program can help you identify support services tailored to your needs at different points in your grief journey. These sources of support may include individual therapy, couples therapy, and support groups, among other resources.

Services We Provide

Grief can feel overwhelming. Because of this, Mount Sinai utilizes a multidisciplinary approach, including social workers, child life specialists, creative arts therapists, and chaplains, to provide concrete and supportive services to help families navigate this difficult time.

Our services include:

  • Telehealth short-term individual, couple, and family grief and bereavement counseling
  • Psychoeducation and guidance about the grieving process
  • Developmentally appropriate resources to help siblings of all ages cope with loss
  • Assistance in developing healthy and effective coping strategies
  • Support groups for individuals or couples grieving a stillbirth, miscarriage, or neonatal death
  • Support groups for birthing parents who have terminated a wanted pregnancy after prenatal diagnosis
  • Mental health resources and other perinatal bereavement support referrals
  • Facilitation of meaningful rituals that are sensitive to families' spiritual, cultural, and religious beliefs
  • Annual memorial service for families to remember those who were lost during pregnancy and childhood
  • Parent's Day services to honor parents who have lost their children
  • Wellness evenings and other special programming
  • Legacy building and memory making
  • Assistance navigating funeral arrangements and burial options

Perinatal Bereavement Support Groups

Our online support groups offer free mutual aid and community connection for bereaved parents after a perinatal loss. They focus on facilitating parents' expression of grief, building resiliency through peer support, providing psychoeducation and normalizing the perinatal grief and bereavement experience, and co-creating sustainable coping strategies among group members.

Perinatal Loss Support Group (English)

  • Audience: This online support group is for parents who have experienced a perinatal loss at any gestational stage.
  • Date & Time: This quarterly closed group will meet for six bi-weekly sessions on the 1st and 3rd Wednesday of every month from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.

Grupo de Apoyo de Pérdida Perinatal / Perinatal Loss Support Group (Spanish)

  • Audiencia: Este grupo de apoyo virtual es para madres y padres que han experimentado una pérdida perinatal en cualquier etapa gestacional.
  • Días y Fechas: El grupo se llevará a cabo mensualmente y se reunirá por Zoom durante el cuarto miércoles de cada mes de 12:00 p.m. a 1:00 p.m.

Termination for Medical Reasons (TFMR) Support Groups

  • Audience: These online support groups are for parents who have interrupted a wanted pregnancy after a prenatal diagnosis. The intensive group focuses on the acute stages of loss for patents seeking more structured support. The monthly group is for parents who have received mental and emotional support for their loss and want to check in periodically.
  • Date & Time: The intensive group meets on the 1st and 3rd Wednesday of every month from 12:00 to 1:00 PM EST for six sessions. The monthly group meets on the 2nd Wednesday of every month from 6:00 to 7:00 PM EST.

Hope After Loss Support Group – Monthly

  • Audience: This online support group is for bereaved parents who, after experiencing a perinatal loss, have attended grief counseling or a perinatal bereavement support group and are now looking to connect with other bereaved parents who are finding hope in their journeys. 
  • Date & Time: This group meets from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. on the 4th Wednesday of every month. 

Perinatal Bereavement Support Groups Registration

To receive more information about or join one of our support groups, please complete this form. The OB Bereavement social worker will reach out to you to complete your screening, assessment, and registration process.

Where We Provide Services 

Mount Sinai’s perinatal and pediatric bereavement programs operate from the Mount Sinai Hospital, where we provide in-person services. We also offer telehealth consultations and counseling for patients with distance or scheduling hardships.

Funding

Our program is enhanced through grants and donations from individuals and families.

Make a Donation