What Is Perinatal Hospice Care?
Perinatal hospice and palliative care is a unique and caring assistance model for parents who decide to continue their pregnancies despite receiving a prenatal diagnosis that their baby has a life-limiting disease and may die before or shortly after birth. More families are discovering themselves in this tragic scenario as prenatal testing advances. Perinatal (around the time of birth) hospice blends the principles and skills of hospice and palliative care into the treatment of this new patient population. This specialist care is offered from diagnosis until the baby's death. Perinatal palliative care assists parents in embracing every moment that their baby may have before and after birth.
This support starts before the infant is even born, at the moment of the diagnosis. It can be compared to "hospice in the womb" and encompasses more conventional hospice and palliative care at home following birth (if the baby survives longer than a few minutes or hours), as well as birth planning, mental assistance for the family, and early medical decisions. It involves crucial infant care, such as feeding, warmth, and comfort. Palliative care can also include medical procedures to prolong the infant's life. This method helps families make decisions before and after the child's birth and during their grieving processes. Additionally, perinatal hospice enables families to commemorate both the infant and the baby's family by making meaningful arrangements for the baby's life, birth, and death.
Perinatal hospice is an approach of care that may be simply included in customary prenatal and postpartum care as an additional support layer. A comprehensive and multidisciplinary team approach is ideal, including social workers, genetic counselors, midwives, traditional hospice and palliative care professionals, labor and delivery nurses, neonatologists, and other medical professionals. The idea was initially put forth in the medical literature in 1997, and there are now well over 300 programs worldwide. Perinatal hospice is a lovely and practical approach to prenatal testing's most distressing challenges.
What Kinds of Services Are Offered by Perinatal Hospice or Palliative Care?
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Support during pregnancy: psychological, spiritual, and medical.
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Parent, sibling, and other support groups.
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Advice on collaborating with medical professionals.
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Education and preparation for childbirth.
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Create customized, individual birth plans.
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Coordinate hospital discharge.
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Contribute to the creation of treasured memories, keepsakes, and mementos.
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Help with funerals and memorial services
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Bereavement and emotional support.
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If necessary, baby pain management.
Is It Safe for the Mother and the Child to Use Perinatal Hospice?
Yes, it is! studies demonstrate that bringing a baby with a prenatal diagnosis to term poses no additional danger to the mother or the child. As a result, many diagnoses are made at 21 weeks or later in the pregnancy. This late in the pregnancy, there is a considerable increase in the risk of death or complications if an abortion is performed. After having an abortion, mothers run the risk of future pregnancy issues like early birth and low birth weight.
Is Perinatal Hospice Safe for the Mother Psychologically?
The answer is unequivocally yes once more. All parents who have lost a baby due to a medical condition naturally experience grief. Studies reveal that mothers who decided to take their child to term return to their pre-abortion mental health more swiftly than mothers who elected to terminate their child because of fetal abnormalities. Abortion complicates healing, prolonging grief and preventing parents from placing it behind them.
Will the Infant Suffer During Perinatal Hospice?
Parents ' key concern is whether the kid may suffer during pregnancy or after birth. Many terminal illnesses are not necessarily painful for the infant. The majority of parents who responded to a survey of parents whose newborns received care from a standardized neonatal comfort care program said that their baby felt comfortable "always." If pain develops, it can be aggressively and successfully addressed, and some suffering can be completely avoided by making thoughtful decisions about the medical measures parents desire or do not desire for their kids. A newborn with a terminal illness does not require immediate transfer to intensive care, surgery, or a ventilator. Even small procedures like infant immunizations and tests that might put infants through undue discomfort can be declined. Instead, one can offer palliative care, which is now recognized as a medical specialization in and of itself. It is possible to comfort and adore the little one.
How Much Does Perinatal Hospice Cost?
Most perinatal hospice infants remain with their parents in the hospital room following birth, being carefully held, bathed, and cherished until the baby's life comes to a quiet and natural end. This is no more expensive than a typical delivery. Meetings for birth preparation and advance care planning with experts qualified to have these conversations are frequently provided by hospitals at no additional cost to the parents when a baby is prenatally diagnosed with a life-limiting condition. At least one insurance provider mainly covers perinatal palliative care. Prenatal care can include birth preparation even if there is no particular coverage, and newborn care includes postpartum care for the newborn.
Many hospitals already have staff members who have received training in the finest bereavement care methods for neonatal mortality, stillbirth, and unexpected miscarriage. Additional staff training can be obtained to assist parents during pregnancy at a low cost. In collaboration with the mother's maternity team, external hospice workers or a private perinatal hospice support group can also help with prenatal delivery preparation and advance care planning at a low cost. Most of the time, parents receive this outside assistance free of charge.
Parents of newborns who survive for more than a few hours or days can care for them at home with the help of hospice and palliative care specialists as needed. Normal insurance or medical help available to any baby covers the cost of medical care or hospice care for the infant after birth. More medical intervention might be necessary depending on the baby's condition and available treatments. Costs may be less than those associated with the delivery of a newborn who is healthy and undoubtedly less than those associated with the delivery of a child with a condition that necessitates intense treatment if parents have chosen to offer comfort care for the infant without trying a course of therapy.
How to Locate a Provider of Perinatal Hospice?
Most hospitals can offer perinatal hospice resources; community-based hospice programs in the neighborhood can assist with one requirement.
Conclusion:
Hospice care continues even when a child passes away. Grief therapy is provided throughout the postpartum period. Typically, patients are reached 72 hours after delivery, every month for a year, and on the first anniversary of their child's passing. When possible, the team may attend services and assist in planning a funeral and memorial ceremony. Postpartum check-ups promote conversation about potential future pregnancies and genetic counseling that may be required.
