Dr Ashleigh Smith of The Glimmer Project interviews 2 sub-specialist medical professionals in this episode of The Glimmer podcast - for women and their families who have experienced pregnancy loss, stillbirth, neonatal loss or high risk pregnancies.
Dr Alex Heazell is a consultant Obstetrician and leads a stillbirth research group in Manchester, UK. He works with Tommy's charity, The International stillbirth alliance and is father to Jack, his son who was stillborn 19 years ago. Dr Heazell runs a rainbow pregnancy clinic specifically for women who have experienced pregnancy loss and are planning or currently pregnant again. Dr Heazell has written research about the economic and psychosocial consequences of stillbirth in the UK, research which had previously been so neglected. His research enabled him to develop a message that the consequences are enormous to women, families, society and the economy, supporting the argument that we should really invest in preventing stillbirth. It costs more to deliver and care for a mum after a stillbirth than in a live birth. Further, a subsequent pregnancy costs a great deal more. Particularly if there is a stillbirth with an unknown cause. In terms of psychological costs, there are 4.2 million women globally, who have symptoms of significant depression because of stillbirth. That level of burden of disease and the societal costs are huge.
Dr Alex Heazell talks about the Rainbow Clinic, which he developed in 2013 after a systematic review, looking at women’s experiences in pregnancy after loss. He looked at accounts of their care or lack of care in their own experiences. It helped them re-frame everything from bereavement care and pregnancy-after-loss care. The Rainbow Clinic offers support including referrals to follow up bereaved parents after their baby has died, results of investigations, post-mortem autopsy, genetic test results, and then to use that information to plan how they care for someone in the following pregnancy. The comfort their care provides mothers and parents is invaluable through continuity of care and a sense of control. He says that midwives and doctors who have the capacity to acknowledge and absorb some of the bereaved parents stress, is hugely therapeutic . The clinic has also been able to amass data from about 600 women, helping to identify patterns. They are constantly learning. Financially - for every pound spent in the clinic, it generates 6 pound 80 in economic value. Finally, Dr Heazell talks about progress towards a gold standard of care, and offers a Glimmer of Hope for women looking for empathetic care during their Rainbow pregnancy.
Dr Johanna Laporte is a maternal-fetal-medicine specialist who discusses the role of this sub-speciality of obstetrics and how it can address the listeners obstetric care and improve outcomes. She emphasizes team work and patient centered care.
This episode is particularly useful for anyone contemplating pregnancy or who is currently pregnant after loss. Anyone interested in current and future research occurring in the field of pregnancy loss would also greatly benefit from hearing this episode.