Message #216594

[Bianca Markos]

While it remains unclear if the mothers were aware that their infants had died, the researchers suggest biophysical changes that prepare mothers for childcare after birth "may have contributed to a gradual letting-go" of the remains.

"Intriguing parallels may exist with physiological and psychological changes experienced by human mothers, in whom the absence of cessation of breastfeeding may cause exaggerated desires to hold their infant (after it has died)," the researchers wrote.

"Certainly in humans, the loss of loved ones is an immensely painful experience, and the loss of a child perhaps almost inconceivably so," Biro told Discovery News, adding that "we probably experience feelings of a 'refusal to let go' even if we don't act on it in the same way as these mothers did."

Humans, she said, tend to "hold onto objects that remind us of the dead person instead. We feel simply unable to throw them away, often for long periods after death, and these can be extremely emotive for us."