Shifting the Culture Around Perinatal Bereavement

Abstract

The purpose behind this project is to raise awareness, provide staff education, and reduce the stigma surrounding perinatal loss. Medical professionals and society as a whole continue to ignore or minimize the debilitating grief parents experience after a miscarriage or newborn death. The negative effects of perinatal loss, as well as the stigma surrounding it, may be lessened by focusing bereavement care toward validating and making meaning of their loss. This approach includes parents in decision making, facilitates rituals and legacy creation, and allows bereaved families to share their stories repeatedly. To operationalize this culture shift, the bereavement coordinator attended a perinatal bereavement conference hosted by Resolve Through Sharing and facilitated unit education by presenting a PowerPoint presentation to the maternity center staff as well as medical professionals at the 2019 regional Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN) conference. Early-loss folders for the surgery and emergency departments—which included items to promote respectful disposition of remains after miscarriage, dilation and curettage, or ectopic pregnancy as well as mementos and educational resources—were made to raise awareness and validate the family’s loss. A survey of 20 labor and delivery nurses as well as NICU staff nurses was administered. Sixteen nurses, or 80%, stated that they felt confident they had the training needed to compassionately care for bereaved families. Twenty nurses, or 100%, responded that having a hospital-wide perinatal bereavement program in place would positively affect families’ emotional well-being and grief process. Sixteen nurses, or 80%, stated they felt comfortable caring for bereaved families and 100%, stated they had not received any formal perinatal bereavement training beyond a unit level. The implication to nursing practice includes raising awareness of the importance of providing maternity care nurses the tools they need, including formal perinatal bereavement education, to feel confident in providing competent, compassionate, respectful care to bereaved families.