Emotional care for early pregnancy loss

New support is available for people who suffer early pregnancy loss, following an Australian-first studyinvestigating emotional care in a private maternity hospital setting.

Up to one-in-four known pregnancies end in miscarriage, with 80 percent of those in the first trimester, affecting about 147,000 Australian women annually.

Ramsay Health Care has begun rolling out a new program to help these women and their partners, as well as empower their healthcare providers.

The patient supportresourcesand staff training materials were developed as part of a study started in 2021 at Ramsay's Frances Perry House, a specialist maternity and women's health hospital in Melbourne.

"We listened closely to everyone involved," saidDr Marjolein Kammers, Principal Investigator in theMental Health and Early Loss of a Pregnancy (M-HELP) Project.

"That was crucial to create emotional support tools that complement each other, and target not only the patients but also partners as well as empowering healthcare providers who provide this important support," she added.

Frances Perry House CEO Shaune Gillespiesaid the study was inspired by a patient who had a difficult loss inside the first 13 weeks of pregnancy.

"It became clear that we needed to change the way we approach the emotional side of early pregnancy loss," he said.

"We do the medical and treatment sidereally well. Now we want to empower our medical and nursing staff to journey alongside the patient and partner and support them through the emotions associated with the loss."

Following the successful launch in Melbourne,Mr Gillespie said Australia's largest private hospitals operator was extending the program to other sites inNew South Wales and Queensland.

"I want this program rolled out across all maternity services in Australia, so we can better support our patients and staff ata difficult time," he added.

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