Adjustment after bereavement has been empirically shown to occur through a sequence of stages in a longitudinal study of bereaved individuals.17 This study revealed that in normal grieving, negative grief indicators such as disbelief, yearning, anger, and depression peak within approximately 6 months of loss. Lin and Lasker found a similar grief process in a study that looked specifically at bereaved parents after pregnancy loss.18 In this study, grief scores were initially relatively high and declined most steeply over the first year. In a 2-year follow-up their evaluation of the grief process showed an interesting result: whilst 41 % of participants showed a normal decline of grief scores, the remaining 59% showed different patterns of pervasive presence or delayed resolution of grief.