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Results of National Maternity Bereavement Experience Survey Published
The results of the National Maternity Bereavement Experience Survey 2022 were published on Thursday, 18 May 2023.
Professor Keelin O’Donoghue (Lead, Pregnancy Loss Research Group-PLRG), Rachel Rice (Parent Advocate, PLRG) and Mairie Cregan (Founder, Féileacáin and Collaborator/Funder, PLRG) contributed their expertise as members of the National Maternity Bereavement Experience Survey Programme Board. Anna Maria Verling, former member of the PLRG, led the project at the Health Information and Quality Authority.
The survey was completed by 655 women and 232 partners who experienced a second trimester miscarriage, stillbirth or early neonatal death between 2019 and 2021. The survey report documents their experiences of maternity bereavement care, including diagnosis, admission, labour and birth, postnatal care, bereavement, discharge and follow-up care. The findings provide valuable information about the standard of maternity bereavement services in Ireland, acknowledging what is working well and identifying areas for improvement.
The Health Service Executive issued a ‘Listening, Responding and Improving’ Report in response to the survey findings, which outlines examples of improvement initiatives that are already in place and plans for ongoing quality improvement. This also includes work being undertaken to implement the National Standards for Bereavement Care Following Pregnancy Loss and Perinatal Death, which members of the PLRG are actively involved in. Read more about the work in the development and implementation of the Standards in our impact case study.
The National Maternity Bereavement Experience Survey 2022 did not include people who had experience first trimester pregnancy loss. The care experiences of people with recurrent miscarriage, were recently gathered via a national survey conducted as part of the RE:CURRENT Project.