[Aftercare for bereaved parents in neonatology: closing a gap in professional support]

Thanks to enormous medical advances, the survival rate of seriously ill newborns and premature babies improved significantly at the end of the last century. However, stagnation has been observed in recent decades. Neonatal palliative care therefore remains an important part of care for seriously ill preterm and newborn infants in neonatology. Parents who experience the loss of a newborn are at an increased risk of developing mental health disorders. As a result, bereaved families face unique emotional and psychological challenges. To date, Germany has not implemented a comprehensive, structured, hospital-initiated, outreach-based aftercare service for parents experiencing early bereavement. This contrasts with the support services provided to parents of ill or premature newborns during and after hospital care. In order to address this gap in care and bridge the gap between inpatient support and outpatient follow-up, the Support Team for Early Bereaved Parents (SAVE) was established at our institution in 2019. Here, we report on our experience of running this new program in its first years.