Perinatal Loss Alert Program
Provides continuity of care with evidence-based practices that strengthen patient-physician collaboration
You may not realize it, but
there is a
GAPING HOLE
in your practice.
1 in 60 pregnancies end in stillbirth
(26,000 per year)
1 in 4 pregnancies end in miscarriage; some think it's closer to 1 in 3
(500,00 per year)
23,000+ babies die within their 1st year
These stats don't include losses during/after IVF or other assisted reproductive techniques
How many of these deaths occurred in your practice?
Are you providing the best care you can for your patients?
PLAP is the "next step" in providing evidence-based continuity of care for families following a perinatal loss. With 1 hour and 2 SIMPLE STEPS, staff awareness, knowledge, and empathy increase, along with patient satisfaction, retention, referrals, and healing.
Why Was the Perinatal LOSS ALERT Program Created?
While many hospitals now have policies and procedures in place to assist families during a perinatal loss, once patients are discharged they often discover that the same level of understanding, education, and care are lacking from other members of their medical care team.
Background
The statistics you read on the home page are astounding, and yet baby loss is often called a "silent loss" because no one seems to want to talk about it. The one place many women WANT to talk about their loss is with their OB physician. But when clinics are unaware of a loss, or how to sensitively interact with bereaved patients, women feel more isolated, angry, and hurt.
You see, after a loss at ANY gestational age, it is very difficult for parents to return to their physician's office because it is laden with potential emotional triggers.
Most postpartum visits occur just a couple of weeks after delivery, a time when parents are emotionally fragile and their baby's death is still raw. For many, your office is the place where parents discovered they were pregnant and began and dreaming about their new family. For others, it may be the place where they discovered their baby had no heartbeat, or where they learned devastating news of a lethal anomaly. Having to return to the office, let alone be in the presence of pregnant women, so soon after a loss is a heart-wrenching experience.
In a busy office environment, it can be difficult to take a few moments to review patients' charts, and often you're not notified of a loss before the patient returns for her postpartum checkup. I've heard many experiences of grieving parents who were required to complete a Postpartum Depression Inventory or were asked how their baby was doing, because staff was unaware that their baby had died. And I've heard far worse experiences. These are just a few quotes I've collected for a research article I'm creating on this program:
In a systematic review of parent experiences with health providers, Gold (2007)* found that parents reported the lack of communication between staff members about the death of their baby was an egregious error. Many expressed resentment when staff members seemed to have forgotten a baby’s death or made thoughtless comments. The most frequent criticism of staff was lack of emotional support or frank insensitivity. Gold noted that “when a baby’s death is viewed as a traumatic event, a random comment from a doctor or nurse at a time of high parental arousal may have far more impact than it otherwise might. In these settings, a provider’s insensitivity could contribute to long-term difficulties in coping for distressed parents and might increase the chance of a complicated grief reaction. One thoughtless comment after a death may become engraved in a parent’s memory even though the same comment in a routine setting might be distressing but have no permanent sequelae.” (Gold, K.J. (2007). Navigating care after a baby dies: A systematic review of parent experiences with health providers. Journal of Perinatology, 27, 230-237)
This easy-to-implement program enhances patient-physician communication and collaboration with an effective method of ALERTING office staff to perinatal losses. It also increases empathy and understanding shown to bereaved parents---healing is promoted when parents feel heard, respected, and responded to appropriately.
A pdf of more benefits of the program is available for viewing and download at the bottom of this page.
Anisa Glowczak, LPC, NCC, GC-C, PT-Csp
Participant Assessment: Complete PRIOR to watching the course video! If more than one participant, please send this link to all participants so they can complete prior to the presentation: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/PLAP_Assessment
FREE PREVIEWPLAP Objectives
FREE PREVIEWPLAP Benefits for OB Practices
FREE PREVIEWCourse Materials
PLAP Training Video