When the Shadow Comes--Coping with Pregnancy and Infant Loss by Coertze Nicci

Author:Coertze, Nicci
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: baby loss, miscarriage, pregnancy loss, infant loss, IVF loss, child loss, grief, bereavement
Publisher: NCI
Published: 2020-10-14T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 34 - CARE PROVIDERS & HOSPITALS: INTERVENTIONS FOR BETTER PERINATAL CARE

Care providers need to know how to lead, develop and improve a hospital’s response to parents who experience the loss of a pregnancy or a baby. This book will assist you in developing care pathways that will facilitate the hospital’s response to the grief experienced by parents and their families. If you are a care provider, and specifically a care provider working in the hospital environment I want to urge you to read Chapters 42 and 42 to see how patients generally experience care providers in a hospital setting.

At the most basic level parents and families need reliable, accurate information given in a sensitive and supportive manner. They need to be able to express their responses in a safe environment. A seemingly ‘simple’ step like establishing a system of prompt admission to a ward (such as the use of a direct admission card) provided by hospitals and recognised by all staff, can have a huge impact on parents’ psyche!

The medical and/or surgical treatment options available to the woman have to be clearly outlined with a full explanation of the advantages and disadvantages of each option. The woman should be supported in making informed choices about her care and allowed time with her partner to consider her options. Appropriate explanations, supplemented with written information, should be given to the parents. Staff should ensure sufficient time is made available to discuss any issues or concerns the parents may have during the course of the woman’s care.

Parents should be offered the services of a baby loss professional as standard practice. Currently this is the exception to the rule! Parents are ill-informed and ill-prepared for what they can expect following the worst news any parent can get. Most of the time they are shoved into a system that wasn’t developed with their wellbeing at mind, but to make a corporate system run smoothly. That needs to change!

A woman known to have a pregnancy complicated by potential loss, who attends scans or other outpatient procedures, should not have to wait alongside other pregnant women. Where resources do not permit such accommodation, the woman’s appointment should be scheduled so that she will be the first woman seen by her sonographer, obstetrician or midwife on that day.

Throughout a woman's care she and her partner should be offered specific information in a sensitive manner, both verbally and in written format, regarding her diagnosis and treatment.

Following admission and resources permitting, the woman should be cared for in a private room as far as possible.

If this is impossible (especially in the case of government hospitals), women admitted to hospital with a diagnosis of ectopic pregnancy or early miscarriage should at least be accommodated in a Gynaecological Ward or in an alternative non-obstetric ward.

The mother should be offered individualized preparation for labour that is tailored to her and her partner’s needs. Hospital staff should ascertain parental preferences for care during delivery and, based on these preferences, parents should be supported accordingly.

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