Background: In Dona Evangelina Rosa Maternity Hospital, located in Teresina (Northeast of Brazil), there were 32 deaths in the NICU during September and October 2010.There were interviewed 46% of the mothers who lost children, and, among them, 20% talked about the feeling of dying.Methods: This research was conducted with 15 mothers who lost children in the NICU where were collected the numbers of dead babies.The mothers were from several cities of Piauí, including Teresina (state capital) and other cities of 2 states in Brazil.After the baby death, the researcher conducted the interviews in a private space, with an average time of 1 hour and 10 minutes.Was applied a semi-structured interview with open questions under the guidance of the researcher.The work is exploratory and descriptive model with a qualitative approach.Results: 33% of the mothers lived in Teresina (state capital), 53% lived upstate and 14% lived in cities in other states.All of them reported having factors that contribute to increase the pain of losing her child.Among them, financial problems, previous unresolved mourning and lack of social support (family and friends).Feelings like severe pain, guilt, anger and anguish were expressed by all of the mothers.Desire of "disappear" appeared in 60% of speeches and desire of "death" in 20%.Conclusions: The death of a child is catastrophic to the mother.This kind of mourning is considered the most difficult to elaborate and may initiate suicidal thoughts.Therefore, it is necessary to invest in training of health professionals to deal with aspects of death and dying as well as providing an adequate service for mothers in a vulnerable situation for the loss of the child that can lead to suicide.