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What happens to babies who are stillborn or lost to miscarriage? In this deeply personal and comforting episode, host Tia Smith — who lost twins, one stillborn and one shortly after birth — studies the doctrine of the salvation of little children, seeking hope and answers for the questions grieving parents carry.
Tia walks through the tender questions one at a time. Why are some children taken so soon? Prophets have taught that some spirits needed only a body, not the testing of mortality — and that the Lord, in His wisdom, knows who will be taken in infancy. Where do they go? Doctrine and Covenants 137 teaches that children who die before the age of accountability are saved in the celestial kingdom, received directly into the arms of the Father. And what about stillborn and miscarried children? Drawing on the General Handbook, President Joseph Fielding Smith, Brigham Young, and the First Presidency's statement on the origin of man, Tia shares the hope that these little ones — recognized in the Church's own language as children who have died — may yet be resurrected and belong to their families. She notes how modern science, from heartbeat detection to ultrasound, has come to affirm what prophets taught long before the technology existed.
Woven throughout is a mother's hard-won comfort: that these children were pure, already proven, too lovely for earth — and that to be chosen as their vessel is an honor. And that as we gather Israel and reunite lost children with their families through temple work, our own grieving hearts begin to heal.
💛 This episode addresses infant loss, stillbirth, and miscarriage, offered in a spirit of hope, comfort, and doctrinal reassurance. If your heart is hurting, may it bring peace.
Q: What happens to children who die before the age of accountability?
A: Doctrine and Covenants 137 teaches they are saved in the celestial kingdom. Prophets teach that these children are pure, already redeemed through the Savior's atonement, received into the presence of the Father — and that a grieving mother is promised the joy of raising her child in the resurrection.
Q: What does the Church teach about stillborn and miscarried babies?
A: The General Handbook refers to them as "children who died before birth" and notes that temple ordinances are not needed or performed for them — while affirming this does not deny that these children may be part of the family in the eternities. President Joseph Fielding Smith expressed hope that they will receive a resurrection and belong to their families.
Q: Will children who die ever be tested in the spirit world or millennium?
A: No. Prophets teach that little children who die will not be tempted in this life, the spirit world, or after the resurrection. Having come forth pure, their salvation is assured.
Q: When will parents get to raise the children they lost?
A: In the morning of the first resurrection, children who died will come forth as they were laid down and be raised by righteous parents to the full stature of their spirits — receiving every blessing, including the sealing blessings of exaltation.
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CITATIONS:
TPJS, p. 176, 197, 199-200
Bruce R. McConkie, “The Salvation of Little Children,” Ensign, April 1977
Bruce R. McConkie, Funeral of Rebecca Adams, 28 October 1967
D&C 137:10
Joseph Fielding Smith, Funeral of Daniel W. Grant
Franklin D. Richards, JD 25: 371
Heber C. Kimball, JD 10:365
General Handbook: 28.3.1, 38.7.3
President Joseph Fielding Smith (1876–1972), Doctrines of Salvation, comp. Bruce R. McConkie, 3 vols. (1954–56), 2:280.
Russell M. Nelson, “Heart of the Matter: What 100 Years of Living Have Taught Me”, September 09, 2023
Russell M. Nelson, “Reverence for Life”, April 1985
LUKE 1:39-44
Sherri Devashrayee Wittwer, LDS LIVING, June 6, 2018
Robert L. Millet, “Alive in Christ: the Salvation of Little Children,”
Brigham Young, JD 10:365 (Funeral of Joseph Kimball, Heber C. Kimball’s son)
(Bryant S. Hinckley, Sermons and Missionary Services of Melvin J. Ballard, Deseret Book Company, 1949, p. 260.)
Mosiah 15:21-25
Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation (1955), 2:54
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