This paper aims to reflect on the experience of grieving mothers in contemporary Brazilian society from an existential-phenomenological perspective. We performed a qualitative study with three mourning mothers, using the phenomenological interview method with a starter question. Analysis of the data followed Giorgi's four methodological steps. The reports of the mothers showed different themes, described by ten constituents of the grieving´s mother experience, as following: Pain, Loss of a way of being, Spirituality, Guilt, Loss of life-world´s sense, Will to die, Fragmentation of affective bonds, Engagement in projects related to the child, Perpetuation of the memory of the son, Strenghtening of ties with a deceased´s significant others. The results indicate that although the grief changes over time, mothers never fully recover from their loss. This leads us to understand the mothers' suffering as a non-pathological condition but with specific features to be understood.
Grief; maternal mourning; phenomenological psychology