Poniente installs mailboxes for leaving messages of support for families who lose a baby

El Hospital Universitario Poniente, of the Servicio Andaluz de Salud (SAS), has placed mailboxes at different points in the centre so that patients, relatives and professionals can leave messages of support for families who have lost a baby during pregnancy or after birth. The initiative has been promoted by the working group of the Humanisation project «Siempre en Mí», on the occasion of World Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Day, which is commemorated on October 15.

The project has been developed by professionals from the Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Paediatrics, Mental Health and Pharmacy units of the hospital. They have prepared a protocol that gives healthcare staff tools to accompany families and standardises actions, with lines of work for individualised and empathetic care that also take into account the cultural and religious differences of the population of the Comarca del Poniente Almeriense. The document has been prepared after a review and update of the medical protocols and of aspects such as communicating the death of the baby or the necessary legal documentation. It protocolises the actions from the detection of a case in Urgencias or in a review consultation, during dilation, birth, admission to Gynaecology or if the death occurs during admission to Paediatrics.

The project includes the creation of the symbol «Siempre en Mí», with a butterfly and the footprints of a baby, made and donated by two volunteer collaborators, which is used in documents, guides and leaflets and to signpost the spaces where the grieving process takes place. Specific rooms have been set up for perinatal grief and parents are offered the possibility of spending time with their babies at the moment of birth and of saying goodbye as they wish, as well as taking photographs. They are also offered a «memory box» with a muslin, a small blanket, a little hat, some booties and a soft toy made by hand; a birth certificate without legal validity with the baby's name, the birth details and their footprints; an identification bracelet and a cord clamp; and leaflets with information to cope with grief. Staff adapt the box according to gestational age and the baby's size. The clothes and soft toys are made by volunteers and users of the Hospital de Día de Salud Mental. The centre also has the «cuna de los abrazos», a device that allows the baby's body to be kept for a few hours so that parents have time to say goodbye. The work includes a section dedicated to the care of the professionals themselves who are involved in a case of perinatal loss.

The midwife Almudena Morales, coordinator of the project, explains that with this initiative they want «to give visibility to a reality that many families live in silence» and they claim «the importance of accompanying, listening and respecting each grieving process». She adds that «it is important that society is able to listen without judging, accompany without minimising and respect the pain of each family».