over-activate their grief response. There are several limitations to Bowlby’s attachment theory the first being that the model was based upon young children utilising momentary separations, which were stressful for the child, more understanding could come from an observation of how parents interact with the child and what they provide for each other during natural, non-stressful situations. How children interact with their parents in a non-stressful situation may provide more information on how the attachment model works than how the child acts when the mother leaves and then returns. Secondary to this the observations took place utilising only the primary caregiver, for example, the mother and other family attachments may not be characterised by similar reactions. Finally, the father or a sibling may have the same attachment with the child at the same time, relating directly to adults having more than one primary attachment, such as significant other and their children. This shows that attachment is not merely confined to infancy but experienced countless times throughout life including adolescence, early adulthood and beyond.

There are several models of grieving that can be explored in relation to disenfranchised grief, firstly the five stages of grief Kubler-Ross (2005) states that the five stages of grief, have evolved since their introduction and have been very misunderstood over the past decades. She goes on the say that they were never meant to help tuck messy emotions into neat packages. We can apply some of the stages of grief to C in that she has experienced anger, mainly at herself for putting her children in a position where violence was occurring in her relationship and being in a place emotionally where she felt she needed drugs and alcohol to cope but mainly not being the parent that her children deserved. She has experienced an initial denial when the children were first placed with social services and again when they were put up for adoption and she has experienced depression. In relation to the baby that died the stages of grief can be seen although not in their entirety, some denial or disbelief may have been present when she received the diagnosis of Edwards syndrome, however, from her disclosures it seems quite matter of fact, the baby was ill and a decision had to be made and while she moved forward quickly, I am unsure if she has truly accepted the loss yet. It is also possible to relate the five stages of grief to N as she too experienced an initial denial when the children were first placed with social services and again when they were put up for adoption. Anger is also evident and she has expressed that she felt angry at herself for allowing herself to stay in a violent and controlling relationship she also feels guilt in relation to this. It is not clear however that bargaining took place nor acceptance and this is an area for further exploration and work.