Marking Short Lives: Constructing and Sharing Rituals Following Pregnancy Loss - Paperback

by Ewan Kelly (Author)

This book explores theologically the practice of hospital chaplains seeking to meet the spiritual needs of parents bereaved by baby death in-utero. The lived experience of bereaved parents, gathered through a series of in-depth interviews, informs such an exploration. Parents describe the trauma of late miscarriage and stillbirth as still being shrouded by silence, myth and misunderstanding in contemporary society. Up-to-date theoretical understandings of grief are also re-examined in light of parents' stories of living with baby death. This book offers suggestions as to how the actual spiritual needs of parents may be met and their grief sensitively facilitated through the sharing of rituals co-constructed by parents and chaplain which seek to have theological integrity yet be relevant in our postmodern age. In our prevalent culture of caring, where increasingly ongoing professional and personal development are regarded as normative, recommendations are made which may aid reflection on current, or shape future, practice for chaplains, pastors, students and various healthcare professionals.

Author Biography

The Author: Ewan Kelly studied medicine and worked as a junior doctor. He then studied theology and was ordained as a Church of Scotland minister. Kelly has a background in parish work and hospital chaplaincy. He is currently chaplain in St Columba's Hospice, Edinburgh and lectures in pastoral theology at the University of Edinburgh where qualitative research into chaplaincy practice with bereaved parents formed the basis of his Ph.D.