Dying before living ? / Mourir avant de n'être

Most of the time, giving birth is a formality. However, it can take on the greatest complexity when it is death, and not life which is the result. Miscarriages, medical terminations of a pregnancy, embryonic destructions, perinatal mortalities? these babies born prematurely don't even have the chance to be properly recognised as a part of this world, leaving their parents to solitude, grief and even a sense of guilt. Isn't it natural that the parents, even if it is painful for them, want to see their child, to name him, to register his existence ? That they need to follow the rituals of bereavement and record the child in the family history ?Doctors, midwives, anthropologists, philosophers, and psychoanalysts ask themselves what their role is when faced with this kied of sudden death, which has the capacity to affect so intensely other lives: how, they ask, can we help these patients along the road of their bereavement ? Conference Gypsy I, le 13 décembre 1996, with Marilia Aisenstein, Francine Caumel-Dauphin, Didier David, Geneviève Delaisi, Maryse Dumoulin, Muriel Flis-Trèves, René Frydman, Camille Laurens, Catherine Le Grand-Sébille, Jean-Philippe Legros, François Olivennes, Ginette Raimbault, Catherine Rongières-Bertrand, François Roussel, Michel Soulé, Anne-Sylvie Valat, Michèle Vial-Courmont, Françoise Zonabend.