Better care for stillbirth parents needed say charities

Baby loss charities are urging the NHS to improve inconsistent and under-resourced bereavement care for parents whose babies die shortly after they are born. Picture: FRED DUFOUR/AFP/Getty Images)

A report by stillbirth and neonatal death charities Sands and Bliss, for babies born premature and sick, said most services lack sufficient specialist staffing input and appropriate facilities to support grieving families.

They said improvements to bereavement care are urgently needed as every week in the UK around 40 babies die during the neonatal period – from birth to 28 days old.

The care that bereaved families receive before, during and afterwards can have a critical impact upon their wellbeing in the months and years ahead, they added.

The joint Audit of Bereavement Care Provision in UK Neonatal Units found that, despite instances of good practice by individual nurses and doctors, many services are not set up to deliver consistent high quality bereavement care.

Health professionals are also not getting the training and support they need to perform this vital role.

The report recommends steps that all NHS trusts and boards can take to improve, drawing from the National Bereavement Care Pathway, a partnership between government, charities and the NHS, that sets out the standards for providing excellent care to anyone affected by pregnancy and baby loss.

The findings are revealed as the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics show a rise in infant mortality that is driven by an increasing neonatal death rate.

Although in recent years stillbirths have begun to fall, neonatal deaths have not.

Key findings of the audit include a wide variation in the quality of bereavement rooms, with more than 40 per cent of the units having rooms situated where parents can hear other babies’ cries, which they said can be incredibly distressing.

It found bereavement care training is not available to  staff in one in five units, while more than a quarter of units provide no emotional support for neonatal nurses, and  more than a third have nothing similar in place for doctors.