Caring for the carers: Supporting the wellbeing of health professionals caring for parents following perinatal loss

The death of a baby is a devastating and difficult experience for parents, their families and support people, but also for the healthcare professionals who care for them. Feelings of emotional exhaustion, hopelessness, and stress are not uncommon for care providers when faced with a traumatic death such as stillbirth and neonatal death. Although bereavement care can be professionally and personally rewarding, care providers are at increased risk for work-related burnout and compassion fatigue and secondary traumatic stress. This can leave our health systems increasingly vulnerable to poor retention, absenteeism, and poor quality of care.

The Stillbirth CRE and PSANZ update of the Clinical Practice Guideline for Care Around Stillbirth and Neonatal Deathand the new national Stillbirth Clinical Standard highlight the need for care providers in perinatal bereavement to be provided with a range of support options including bereavement care training, formal and informal debriefing, clinical supervision, and access to relevant support services.

This project aimed to understand the wellbeing needs and preferences of perinatal bereavement care providers in Australia and increase the availability and accessibility of psychosocial support options. This was achieved through a national survey to understand the needs and preferences of health professionals in maternity and perinatal loss care settings which has then informed the development and codesign of a new online program developed with health professionals and for health professionals.

The Caring for the Carer program was launched in August 2025 at the annual Waves of Change conference. The program is now available to all health professionals via the Stillbirth CRE’s learning platform: https://learn.stillbirthcre.org.au/

If you would like to receive some flyers to share with your colleagues and workplace, please email stillbirthcre@mater.uq.edu.au

Research Team: Christine Andrews, Fran Boyle, Louis de Waal, Ida Stevia Diget, David Ellwood, Vicki Flenady, Jacqui Freeman, Belinda Jennings, Ann Lancaster (Lead Writer), Siobhan Loughnan, Cherie Martin, Tani Paxton, Emma Porter, Sean Seeho, Antonia Shand, Megan Weller.