Understanding what happened - The Perinatal Mortality Review Process

We are very sorry that your baby has died. We understand that this is a difficult time to be reading new information.

It is important to understand as much as we can about what happened and why your baby died. In order to do this, in the coming weeks a team of medical and maternity staff at NHS Lanarkshire will hold a meeting and review your and your baby’s care to understand the events that led up to the death of your baby.

The hospital review forms part of standard NHS care which should be provided for every family after a death so that bereaved parents have as much information as possible about why their baby died and so that we can learn from what happened in order to improve care and prevent, if possible, the death of other babies in the future.

Keeping you informed

It may take up to 12 weeks to gather all the information required for a review meeting. We understand that this is a long time to wait and if you would like to meet with a consultant before the review takes place, you can arrange this through your key contact. We may, however, not have any further information about what happened and why your baby died by then. Once the review is complete, a consultant will discuss its findings with you.

If you have any questions about this information please ask a member of staff before you leave hospital. Once you are discharged our key contact will be in touch with you within 10 days.

Involving you

Your views are important and it would be helpful if you could share your feelings and thoughts about your care, or any questions you have for the review panel to think about during their review. To support you in doing this, we have provided you with a key contact:

Bereavement Specialist Midwife
Vicky Grove
Telephone: 01698361100 extension 5732.
Email: victoria.grove@lanarkshire.scot.nhs.uk

Your key contact will:

• call you to talk to you about the review process
• ask if you would like to ask any questions or give your perspective of your care to the review team
• give you choices about how you might do this

Your feedback

The following are prompts designed to help you think about any questions or comments you may have about aspects of you and your baby’s care. You will be given several options of how you would like to provide this feedback when our key contact gets in touch with you.

Any feedback you give us will help the hospital team to review your care and ensure we address your questions as best as we can.

• Care during pregnancy
• Care during the birth of your baby
• The care of you, your family and your baby after birth
• Your baby’s care if they spent time in the neonatal unit
• The support you received around the time your baby died
• Care you received from any other team. This may include other medical teams, community midwives, your GP, counsellors, chaplains, The Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS), Patient Experience Team, or a hospital complaint system
• The aspects of your care that were most supportive
• The aspects of your care that you feel need to be improved
• Any other comments you’d like to make

If you need this information in another language or format, please e-mail:

Translation.Services@lanarkshire.scot.nhs.uk