Bereaved parents more likely to die prematurely

Parents who lose a newly-born baby are more likely to die prematurely, according to a new study carried in specialist journal BMJ Supportive and Palliative Care. British researchers studied a random sample of national death registrations from 1971 to 2006. They compared deaths among parents who had been bereaved in the first year of a child's life or whose child had been stillborn, with deaths among parents whose baby had survived beyond the first year. Compared with non-bereaved parents, the bereaved ran a risk two or four times higher of dying or having been widowed in the first 10 years of the child's death. It was especially true for mothers. The reasons for the mortality are unclear so far. But the researchers suggested that alcohol abuse among bereaved parents may be a factor.