Working with practitioners to develop training in peri-natal loss and bereavement: Evaluating three workshops

Peri-natal loss is as profound as any other bereavement [Chambers, H.M., Chan, F.J., 2000. Support for women/families after peri-natal death. (Cochrane Review). Issue 1. The Cochrane Library, Oxford, Update Software], is commonplace, and its traumatic potential has long been overlooked by clinicians and researchers [Spechard, 1997. Traumatic death in pregnancy: the significance of meaning and attachment. In: Figley, C.R., Bride, B., Mazza, N., (Eds.), Death and Trauma: The Traumatology of Grieving. Taylor and Francis, London, 1997, pp. 67-98]. Previous miscarriage, stillbirth or neonatal death is implicated in post-natal depression and behaviour management difficulties after the birth of subsequent children. The involvement of the health visitor in supporting grieving parents may be crucial to medium and long-term family health [Hill, C., 1997. Evaluating the quality of after death care. Nursing Standard 12(8), 38-39]. However, service provision for such families appears to be inconsistent and depends on the skills, confidence and time constraints of individual practitioners, with little in the way of guidance and support in this sensitive area of care [Dent, A., Condon, L., Blair, P., Flemming, P., 1996. A study of bereavement care after a sudden and unexpected death. Archives of disease in childhood, 74, 552-526]. This paper outlines the development and evaluation of a series of workshops around peri-natal loss initially offered to health visitors in North Staffordshire (UK), and then expanded to incorporate midwives. The authors formally evaluated the three workshops (and their impact) retrospectively, and implemented the findings to further develop the workshops, thus ensuring relevance to professional practice. The rationale behind the introduction of the workshops and the contents are introduced; approaches to the evaluation process described; presentation of the findings offered; followed by a discussion of the key issues.