Maternity healthcare chaplains and perinatal post-mortem support and understanding in the United Kingdom and Ireland: An exploratory study

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Date
2021-01-07
Authors
Nuzum, Daniel
Fitzgerald, B.
Evans, M. J.
O'Donoghue, Keelin
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Publisher
Springer Nature Switzerland AG
Published Version
10.1007/s10943-020-01176-4
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Abstract
Perinatal autopsy rates have declined significantly in recent decades. There is a lack of consensus concerning the potential religious influences for bereaved parents in their decision making process for post-mortem. This online study of British and Irish maternity healthcare chaplains explored their understanding of general and local perinatal post-mortem procedures and their experiences in the support of parents. Participants included Christian, Muslim and non-faith chaplains. No chaplain identified any religious prohibition to perinatal post-mortem. A majority of chaplains reported that they had been asked about post-mortem by parents; only a minority felt adequately prepared. A key recommendation is that following appropriate training chaplains may be well placed to support colleagues and parents during the decision making process.
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Keywords
Post-mortem , Autopsy , Chaplaincy , Bereavement , Stillbirth , Perinatal
Citation
Nuzum, D., Fitzgerald, B., Evans, M. J. and O'Donoghue, K. (2021) 'Maternity healthcare chaplains and perinatal post-mortem support and understanding in the United Kingdom and Ireland: An exploratory study', Journal of Religion and Health. doi: 10.1007/s10943-020-01176-4
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https://hdl.handle.net/10468/10946
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Obstetrics & Gynaecology - Journal articles
Copyright
© 2021, the Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC part of Springer Nature. This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in Journal of Religion and Health. The final authenticated version is available online at: https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10943-020-01176-4