This is a “spoiler” list of books, movies, and other media which reference pregnancy & infant loss.
This is not to be mistaken for our list of actual support books and resources for pregnancy and infant loss – though a couple titles were added to both, like Return to Zero, because they are wonderful.
Knowing what media represents the healing community is a good thing.
Sometimes it’s nice to intentionally engage in the subjects of our journey.
Other times, it’s nice to enjoy a film or a book without facing an unexpected or painfully intruding reminder.
Having this list can be valuable to show that Hollywood and others in fact do address bereavement, it can help us determine which ways loss is demonstrated respectfully and which ways it is demonstrated offensively, and it can help to shield us if we would like to avoid a depiction of pregnancy/infant loss while enjoying a book or movie. A stillbirthday mother also suggested viewing the database “Does the Dog Die?”
Please leave comments below, to add to the list (including a link might be helpful too, so we can determine which ones, if there is more than one movie with the same title), and please tell us which titles reference bereavement respectfully, and which ones reference our journeys offensively.
Books
- The Help
- Handle with Care
- The Prodigal Summer
- Where the Sidewalk Ends (“Dreadful” poem)
- Big Love (secondary infertility)
- What Alice Forgot
Movies
- Return to Zero (stillbirthday is in the end credits!)
- This is Our Time (by the makers of Fireproof and Courageous)
- Marley and Me
- Away We Go
- A Walk in the Clouds
- Lorenzo’s Oil (childhood diagnosis)
- Battle in Seattle
- Then She Found Me (adoption)
- Seven Pounds
- The Time Traveler’s Wife
- The Hand that Rocks the Cradle
- Maybe Baby
- Secret Window
- Karate Kid
- Benjamin Button
- Finding Nemo (Disney/Pixar) (depicts secondary/additional trauma)
- Up (Disney/Pixar)
- Astro Boy
- Couple’s Retreat
- Revolutionary Road
- Facing the Giants (difficulty TTC, no loss)
- Courageous
- The Help
- What to Expect When You’re Expecting
- Cider House Rules (incest, elective abortion, cremation, orphanage)
- The Way
Television
- The Big C
- Private Practice, season 5 finale
- Call the Midwife (includes crisis births and infant death)
- Season 2, Episode 6 of The Fosters
About Children’s Loss of Parents
- All Dogs Go To Heaven
- Angels in the Outfield
- Cinderella
- Sword in the Stone
- Because of Windixie
