Product Description

Fathers Feel Too too has created such a stir it was publicised in The Times and Home and Family magazine even before publication.
It is a new book available from the Stillbirth and Neonatal Death Society written by veteran journalist and poet Andrew Don whose baby Lara Jean died during the fifth month in the womb.
For generations, men have been expected to keep a stiff upper lip and to hold it together for wives and partners.
Now for the first time, men speak openly about the pain of losing a baby and describe how, several years down the line, they have worked through their grief and found new joy in their lives.
Essential reading for medical professionals, support service providers, men and all those who love them.
Fathers Feel too is disturbing, it is heart-wrenching and an education.
But above all it is a book of hope - a must-read.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #604622 in Books
• Published on: 2005-11-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 100 pages

Customer Reviews

Light at the end of tunnel
"Children are not supposed to die before their parents. When a parent dies we lose a piece of our past but when a child dies we lose a piece of our future." So says Richard, one of ten contributors to Andrew Don's emotional but ultimately uplifting book "Fathers Feel Too". This is a book for men who are grieving the death of a child but also for those who love such men. It is, furthermore, essential reading for medical professionals and for anybody who provides support to bereaved parents. Andrew himself is the first contributor to the book. He, like the others, tells his "story", one which begins with the devastating death of his much longed-for daughter, Lara Jean, "a five-month-old foetus" but "not just any foetus...she was my little girl…my hope, my future, my light." Andrew's is a story of loss but equally of anger, of reflection, of advice and, thankfully, of hope. His loss of Lara Jean seems unfair and unacceptable in equal measures. His anger over the "shenanigans" that went on in the hospital immediately prior to Lara Jean's death when "notes and faxes disappeared" and "basic medical checks were either forgotten about or undertaken haphazardly" is an anger that may, understandably, always remain. His reflections - on his need for revenge, on his passage from the darkness of despair into the light at the end of grief's suffocating tunnel, and that his subsequent adoption of two children was the right thing for him to do since "being a dad is an attitude, not a condition" - are all wholly inspiring. His advice to medical professionals to remember that "yes, fathers feel, too!" is as essential as it is obvious. And his hope, that men who lose a baby will themselves learn to hope again and learn to live again, is personal and poignant, but also practical. Indeed, hope appears to be the key to "Fathers Feel Too". Those fathers who responded to Andrew's worldwide e-mail asking for their stories were told that their experience would only be included if it showed "a light at the end of the tunnel". This book, through the brave recollections of its ten fathers, through Andrew's own beautiful poetry which so lovingly links the ten stories, and through its "ultimate optimism" achieves precisely that. Not only do we bereaved fathers feel too, but by expressing our grief we are, as Andrew confidently claims, "laying down the foundations of future hope and healing."

Mario Di Clemente
February 2006
Author of "Living With Leo"

Fathers Feel Too
"Children are not supposed to die before their parents. When a parent dies we lose a piece of our past but when a child dies we lose a piece of our future." So says Richard, one of ten contributors to Andrew Don's emotional but ultimately uplifting book "Fathers Feel Too". This is a book for men who are grieving the death of a child but also for those who love such men. It is, furthermore, essential reading for medical professionals and for anybody who provides support to bereaved parents. Andrew himself is the first contributor to the book. He, like the others, tells his "story", one which begins with the devastating death of his much longed-for daughter, Lara Jean, "a five-month-old foetus" but "not just any foetus...she was my little girl…my hope, my future, my light." Andrew's is a story of loss but equally of anger, of reflection, of advice and, thankfully, of hope. His loss of Lara Jean seems unfair and unacceptable in equal measures. His anger over the "shenanigans" that went on in the hospital immediately prior to Lara Jean's death when "notes and faxes disappeared" and "basic medical checks were either forgotten about or undertaken haphazardly" is an anger that may, understandably, always remain. His reflections - on his need for revenge, on his passage from the darkness of despair into the light at the end of grief's suffocating tunnel, and that his subsequent adoption of two children was the right thing for him to do since "being a dad is an attitude, not a condition" - are all wholly inspiring. His advice to medical professionals to remember that "yes, fathers feel, too!" is as essential as it is obvious. And his hope, that men who lose a baby will themselves learn to hope again and learn to live again, is personal and poignant, but also practical. Indeed, hope appears to be the key to "Fathers Feel Too". Those fathers who responded to Andrew's worldwide e-mail asking for their stories were told that their experience would only be included if it showed "a light at the end of the tunnel". This book, through the brave recollections of its ten fathers, through Andrew's own beautiful poetry which so lovingly links the ten stories, and through its "ultimate optimism" achieves precisely that. Not only do we bereaved fathers feel too, but by expressing our grief we are, as Andrew confidently claims, "laying down the foundations of future hope and healing."

Mario Di Clemente
February 2006
Author of "Living With Leo"