Developing a parent version of a guideline for respectful and supportive perinatal bereavement care

Parents need timely, sensitive, and evidence-based information when a baby dies. Guiding Conversations is designed to support parents who have experienced stillbirth or neonatal death, helping them to navigate many difficult decisions about their own care and the care of their baby.

Clinical practice guidelines provide healthcare professionals with evidence-based recommendations for best practice bereavement care. Guiding Conversations makes this same information available to parents by translating key recommendations into a format that is clear, compassionate, and responsive to their needs. The aim is to support informed decision-making and helping parents make choices that matter most to their family.

Guiding Conversations is based on the Clinical Practice Guideline for Care Around Stillbirth and Neonatal Death (the CASaND Guideline), developed by the Stillbirth CRE and the Perinatal Society of Australia and New Zealand (PSANZ), with the support of Stillbirth Foundation Australia. It follows the Guidelines International Network process for creating patient versions of clinical guidelines and is the result of extensive consultation with bereaved parents and healthcare professionals.

Guiding Conversations has received highly positive feedback from consumers and healthcare providers. It is being used in maternity services across Australia.

“This is SO incredibly beautiful! It’s one of the most gentle, loving, inclusive, and comprehensive guides I have read in the baby loss space … The overwhelming feeling I got when reading this guide is how it slows everything down in a moment of crisis. It offers space to think about things that may be far from your mind, until after the fact –when it’s too late. So my hope would be that everyone gets a copy of this as early as possible It could significantly change their experience!!” Mother of a stillborn baby

Available here: https://carearoundloss.stillbirthcre.org.au/