Developing an Infrastructure for Bereavement Outreach in a Maternal-Fetal Care Center.
Although bereavement programs are a common element of palliative medicine and hospice programs, few maternal-fetal care centers offer universal bereavement outreach services following perinatal loss. In this article, we describe the implementation of a bereavement outreach program at the Center for Fetal Diagnosis and Treatment at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. The four primary goals identified when developing the bereavement outreach protocol included: (1) centralize communication for patient tracking when a perinatal loss occurs, (2) provide individualized and consistent resource support for grieving patients and families, (3) identify strategic outreach points throughout the first year post-loss, and (4) instate programmatic improvements in response to feedback from patients and their families. Strategies for establishing standardized follow-up protocols and operationalizing methods to address outreach initiatives will be shared, with the primary aim of providing other fetal care centers with a proposed model for perinatal bereavement outreach services.
['Cole|Joanna C M|JCM|', 'Budney|Alexandria|A|', 'Howell|Lori J|LJ|', 'Moldenhauer|Julie S|JS|']
D001601:Bereavement D002648:Child D005260:Female D006801:Humans D015143:Philadelphia D011247:Pregnancy D011295:Prenatal Care D012944:Social Support
Bereavement outreach Perinatal loss Fetal care Birth defects Congenital anomalies Grief support Maternal care Parental grief