Evaluation of Stillbirth Stories
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Does the opportunity to listen to the clinical and personal experiences of bereaved parents and other clinicians improve clinicians' confidence in caring for families who have had a stillbirth?
IRAS ID
199134
Contact name
Alexander Heazell
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Statistics from 2013 show that 1 in every 216 babies born in the UK was stillborn. The confidence and emotional response of professionals caring for families who have a stillbirth is little considered or researched. We will ask staff who work in the maternity unit at St Mary’s Hospital to complete an internet-based questionnaire sent by email. We will ask parents who had a stillbirth at St Mary’s Hospital about the clinical and emotional care they received as well as parents who spontaneously visit the website for their feedback.
In the autumn of 2016, a pilot audio archive documenting the experience of stillbirth from the perspectives of bereaved parents and clinicians (midwives and obstetricians) will launch online. Stillbirth Stories is supported by a public engagement grant from the Wellcome Trust. When the resource is launched, we will email a second online survey to staff at St Mary’s Maternity unit and who have been directed to the Stillbirth Stories archive, to ask if their clinical confidence and emotional response was affected by accessing the resource. A (optional) pop-up survey will ask other users of Stillbirth Stories online how accessing the resource had affected them.
The results will describe clinicians experiences of caring for parents whose children were stillborn and how bereaved parents would like clinicians to behave, thus allowing us to determine recommendations for improving the bereavement care given by maternity professionals. It will also help us assess the value of the Stillbirth Stories archive and give insights into making it as useful as possible to professional and bereaved parents.REC name
West Midlands - Black Country Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
17/WM/0257
Date of REC Opinion
3 Aug 2017
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion