[Individual neonatal end-of-life care and family-centred bereavement support]

Abstract

Neonatal end-of-life care and family-centred bereavement support in perinatal medicine are a multiprofessional challenge directed to the dying newborn and the parents as well as to the care-givers. Clinical experience shows that many aspects of individual neonatal end-of-life care and family-centred bereavement support are not well known to the health-care providers. This is especially true for a standardised quality management and the components of bereavement support offered to parents. An interdisciplinary concept for an individual neonatal end-of-life care and famlily-centred bereavement support has been developed at the Center of Perinatal Medicine at the Charité, Berlin. The concept aims for two main aspects: (1) meeting the individual medical, psychological, emotional and spiritual needs of the dying newborn, the parents and family, and (2) facilitating standardised and process-orientated preparation, evaluation and reflexion of every case of end-of-life care. In this article some recommendations for implementing a basic care concept for families and their dying newborns are presented.