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trauma
compassion
Mortality
Perinatal care

Supporting the needs of midwives caring for women with perinatal loss in South Africa

02 January 2023
Research
02 January 2023
Volume 31 · Issue 1

Abstract

Background/Aim

Midwives play an important role in assisting women to cope with the initial trauma of perinatal loss, but their own coping and support needs can be overlooked. The purpose of the study was to explore the coping behaviours and support needs of midwives caring for women with perinatal loss.

Methods

A qualitative, exploratory, descriptive design was used. Data were collected using semi-structured one-on-one interviews with 13 purposively sampled participants from the Nelson Mandela Bay Health District.

Results

Three themes emerged concerning midwives' coping mechanisms in relation to perinatal loss, their views on support from management and the need for psychological and emotional support.

Conclusions

The participants felt the need for unit-based psychological and emotional support. They called for the development of a protocol for midwives to manage perinatal loss events. They felt that the layout of the labour wards needed to be redesigned and that the problem of staff shortages needed to be urgently addressed.

Perinatal loss is a common global public health concern (Kissane and Parnes, 2014). Despite significant reductions in global perinatal mortality rates over the last two decades, the World Health Organization (WHO, 2020; 2022) estimated there were 2.4 million neonatal deaths in 2020 and over 2 million stillbirths. Charrois et al (2020) indicated that 15–20% of pregnancies in the UK end in miscarriage, based on data from a number of sources. In the UK, the extended perinatal mortality rate is 5.13 per 1000 births (Draper et al, 2020). South Africa has high numbers of perinatal losses, with perinatal deaths set at 18 683 in 2016 (Statistics South Africa, 2018) or approximately double that of the UK, at 11.5 per 1000 births. These data indicate that large numbers of women and their families experience the pain and trauma of perinatal loss.

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Coping mechanisms
Labour
Midwives
Perinatal loss
Support needs