| OCR Text |
Show Development of a Manualized Perinatal Bereavement Support Group Brittany Bullock, MSN, RN, PMHNP-DNP Student, Deborah Morgan, DNP, PMHNP-BC, Dr. Kathie Supiano, PhD, LCSW, FT Camille Hawkins LCSW, Jaymie Olsen-Maines & Melannie Green, Share Parents of Utah . Key Take Away Perinatal loss affects millions of parents per year. Adoption of a Perinatal Bereavement Support Group into Caring Connections would greatly support this specialized population. Background • Perinatal loss is defined as the loss of an infant through death at any gestation of pregnancy (miscarriage, early loss, stillborn) up to 28 days after birth. • Utah: in 2022, 241 reported losses > 20 weeks gestation. • National: in 2020, 20,854 fetal deaths (>20 weeks). • Around 26% of all pregnancies end in miscarriage and nearly 80% of early pregnancy loss occurs before 12 weeks • Perinatal grief: linked to anxiety, depression, substance use, sleep disturbances, PTSD. • Current local resources: Share Parents of Utah open support groups in person & online, twice yearly online infant loss group with Chapters & Seasons private practice. • Caring Connections: evidence-based bereavement program at the University of Utah College of Nursing that provides grief support groups categorized by type of loss (loss to addiction, loss to suicide, COVID-19 loss). • There are no Caring Connections support groups for perinatal loss. Methods • • • • • Human-to-human relationship theoretical model Evaluate need for perinatal bereavement program and assess number of fetal losses locally and nationally. Identify evidence based perinatal bereavement grief support resources and gather data to develop weekly group topics/material. Develop a manualized Perinatal Bereavement Support Program based on existing evidence-based interventions. Evaluate feedback from Caring Connections leaders and their willingness to adopt perinatal bereavement support into their program. Results • • • • • • EPAC Data: 123 miscarriages out of 251 patients seen. Majority were around 6-7 weeks gestation. Lack of data collection to represent true perinatal loss numbers. (<20 weeks gestation). Completed development of a 125-page Perinatal Bereavement Grief Support Manual for Caring Connections. 8-week sessions- different topic each week Satisfaction: based on content expert feedback, evaluation of manual content. Adoption into the Caring Connections Bereavement Support Program. Perinatal Bereavement support groups available this summer/fall. Conclusions • • • • Caring Connections would greatly benefit from the ability to offer specialized grief support to expand their services to the community for those experiencing perinatal loss. Limitations: • inability to pilot a perinatal bereavement support group due to time constraints • Inability to collect University of Utah Hospital fetal loss data Improved accessibility: online platform, rural participants Future Implications: • ongoing quality improvement • opportunity to expand Caring Connections by development of specific focus groups (loss of a child, loss of a sibling, loss due to cancer) • translation of manual into Spanish @uofunursing @utnurseresearch |
