How weird is this?

[RadishRose]

I do understand how the mom and dad feel the need for these prints as a memorial. To send them out can be helpful I guess to announce the loss of their baby, but this is so new to me.

In the olden days, mabye the 19th century or turn of the century, it was common for parents to have their dead child photographed in their coffins!

 

[RadishRose]

But this is basically a death-announcement. Back in the 1800s, people sent out photos of the deceased. In this case, it might have been a photo of the mother holding her dead infant.

We were thinking the same thing!

 

[Murrmurr]

Are you sure it's not the hospital itself making the prints? They always hand/foot print babies for identification, even dying or dead ones. Stillborn. How very very sad.

It could be a hospital service. And maybe the hospital gets a percentage, like 5% or 15%.

 

[RadishRose]

I bet the hospital gave the prints to the parents and they simply made copies. Or maybe had someone else copy them.

 

[Right Now]

The Hospital has to be culpable, a human in their building,
whether alive or dead is due proper care and privacy, the
parents might be allowed to see the child, but not some
ghoul to do that, for money.

I think you are all overthinking this idea that some woman went to the hospital and got the baby's prints.
The hospital generates a birth certificate and/or death certificate of all babies in and out of their hospital by law.
The parents and/or funeral parlor receives the original and copy.

I would think the parents contacted the designer of the cards (I certainly wouldn't call it a greeting card. More like an announcement of sorts) to make up an amount to be distributed to anyone they felt should be notified of the happening. They could copy and make available to the designer anything they wished.

It is a sad affair in any situation, but as many of you have said, couples grieve in their way.

Just as many have an elaborate headstone, while others are cremated with nothing marking the passing at all.

 

[NorthernLight]

I agree that it was a death announcement, which is a good idea, for various reasons.

The hand and footprints might seem a bit weird, but no worse than an open-coffin funeral, or keeping a deceased person's ashes in the living room.

 

[PamfromTx]

But this is basically a death-announcement. Back in the 1800s, people sent out photos of the deceased. In this case, it might have been a photo of the mother holding her dead infant.

One of my aunts delivered a stillborn back in the 1940s; someone took pictures because my aunt wanted to remember that baby girl. Baby was precious. I'm sure it was very difficult to let go. I don't find this disgusting or weird at all.

 

[DebraMae]

Whatever their reasons I would not initiate a conversation about the card with the parents but would offer my condolences if the opportunity presented itself.

 

[Murrmurr]

I agree that it was a death announcement, which is a good idea, for various reasons.

The hand and footprints might seem a bit weird, but no worse than an open-coffin funeral, or keeping a deceased person's ashes in the living room.

Remember mourning jewelry? I know you're old enough for it to be a living memory, I just mean...well, you know what I mean. And some of it was made of the hair of the deceased loved one.

 

[Remy]

If prints were made of the child, that should be for the parents only. And that would be understandable. Sent out to people, that's highly inappropriate IMO.

 

[Murrmurr]

If prints were made of the child, that should be for the parents only. And that would be understandable. Sent out to people, that's highly appropriate IMO.

I get it, though. Even though the baby was stillborn, the parents want people to think of it as their child, and a person. The little foot and hand prints humanize their baby.

 

[Mike]

Not necessarily done by the hospital. Google just about anything & it's there to copy.

I didn't think that the Hospital did or allowed it Knight,
the way I read it, my head said that the body should be
kept in a secure place, there was no indication that the
person had permission.

If, I got it wrong, I apologise.

Mike.

 

[Knight]

I didn't think that the Hospital did or allowed it Knight,
the way I read it, my head said that the body should be
kept in a secure place, there was no indication that the
person had permission.

If, I got it wrong, I apologise.

Mike.

I didn't take it that you thought the hospital did it. Your post was clear that a persons death should be personal & not an object to make money on.

Death is not a topic that is comfortable to talk about. Compassion for another & accept how they manage their grief is the best we can. Or not depending on our thought processes.

 

[fancicoffee13]

A younger woman ( age 29 ) that my Wife knows , recently lost a baby that was still born. Unfortunate, but it does happen sometimes. A few days ago, we received an envelope in the mail, addressed to my Wife. She opened it and found a greeting card. On the card were two little hand prints and two little foot prints in black ink. The card had the name that the couple had decided to name the baby girl, with the date of the still birth. I was revolted. Apparently there is a woman who goes to the hospital morgue and makes prints of the dead babies hands and feet and then creates these death cards, for money.

What do you think of this ? I was disgusted. JimB.

Maybe this was a way to have a physical (ink on paper) record to keep of the baby's birth. It is personal and I believe there are many things in life that may seem awful, but not awful to others. What helps someone else may seem senseless to me or you.

 

[Jules]

Maybe mom and dad felt it best to announce the loss of their baby to family and friends.
That could certainly head off any future awkward encounters where people ask "how's the new baby"?

Agree, this is partially why she did it. For her, it’s part of her grieving.

I can understand the announcement, not the prints. Perhaps some opportunist has figured out that they can sell this service to grieving mothers/fathers.

 

[CarolfromTX]

People do strange things and make strange choices in their grief. And other people take advantage. Very sad.

 

[Aneeda72]

How would people feel if old Mrs Jones up the road got a cast taken of her dead husband's feet and hands and sent them to friends and neighbours.. pretty shocked I would imagine..

Hmm, I, yup, I think this is a great idea. Yes. Yes I do. I am going to do this. If he dies first, but send them to everyone in his family. Just his family cause, like him, they are all jerks. Have fake attorney envelopes printed up, his name so they think they are getting an inheritance; and BOOM-dead guys feet and hands.

@hollydolly genius, simply genius

 

[fuzzybuddy]

I think any good artist can duplicate the hands and feet of a baby, without the need to access the morgue. I'm a little confused, does the card say the baby was still born? But what are you supposed to do when you get this card? Send a condolence card? You do seem like an insensitive clod if you ignore it.
BTW, if it IS the kid's hands and feet-that creeps me out.

 

[chic]

Maybe there is more to the story. It's a tragedy to give birth a stillborn child. This woman could be trying to ease her own grief. I'd let her and listen to what she has to say. The answer probably lies there. She seems to be reaching out. I would let her without judgement.

 

[Victoria]

The Mother paid a woman who creates the cards. I am not sure how that women gets access to the dead baby in order to make the ink impressions . They look like tiny hands and feet imprinted on the card. My Wife also thought it was gross. JImB.

Wow that's crazy. How did she receive it in the mail if she didn't pay for it? How did the person know what she was going to name the child? The hand and footprints could have been fake generic baby hand and foot prints though.