Perinatal death increases the risk of pathological mourning, due to the liminal status of the foetus/newborn and the parental perception of the child as an extension of their own ego. Mourning rituals are of particular importance: they serve to circumscribe grief, to soothe the anger assumed for the dead and to allow the bereaved to return to life. Nowadays, these rituals tend to be less rich and communal, and therefore rely heavily on the individual’s ability to find an adequate symbolic framework within themselves. Because of the “scandal”, as the philosopher Jankélévitch puts it, that death represents in our societies, the creativity and originality of certain historical rites have returned, as illustrated by a clinical vignette.