Parents’ evaluation of support in Australian hospitals following stillbirth
- Published
- Accepted
- Subject Areas
- Health Policy, Pediatrics, Psychiatry and Psychology, Public Health, Women's Health
- Keywords
- Stillbirth, babies, guidelines, Australian, support, hospitals, satisfaction, PSANZ
- Copyright
- © 2015 Basile et al.
- Licence
- This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ PrePrints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
- Cite this article
- 2015. Parents’ evaluation of support in Australian hospitals following stillbirth. PeerJ PrePrints 3:e891v1 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.891v1
Abstract
The present study evaluated the level of support and satisfaction among parents of stillborn babies in Australian hospitals. One-hundred and eighty-nine mothers and fathers completed an online survey designed by the researcher based on the guidelines designed by the Perinatal Society of Australia and New Zealand. Support was inconsistent with guidelines implemented only 55% of the time, on average. Areas of support regarding creating memories, birth options and autopsy were most problematic. A significant positive correlation was found between support and satisfaction and there is indication that there has been some increase in support and satisfaction over time. There has been a significant increase in both support and satisfaction since the release of the guidelines in 2009. Creating memories was regarded by parents as the most influential to their grief. It is recommended that health professionals review guidelines and seek feedback from parents as to how they can improve the support they provide.
Author Comment
This manuscript has been submitted to PeerJ for review.