An exploration of the impact of organisational support on midwives' abilities to provide effective perinatal bereavement care to grieving parents

Context and background Perinatal bereavement is a traumatic event for many parents. Although the provision of bereavement support requires a multidisciplinary team approach involving midwives, doctors, social workers, pastoral... [ view full abstract ]

Context and background
Perinatal bereavement is a traumatic event for many parents. Although the provision of bereavement support requires a multidisciplinary team approach involving midwives, doctors, social workers, pastoral workers and counsellors, midwives are generally the lead professionals who provide care to women during the significant and normal life of the pregnancy, labours and postpartum.

The provision of effective bereavement support is challenging for some midwives because midwives not only have to provide significant and varied amount of emotional support to bereaved parents but also have to cope with their own emotional responses to the situation. Organisational support of midwives is important to promote their abilities to provide effective bereavement care to grieving parents.

Aim of the study
The aim of the study is to explore the impact of organisational support on midwives' abilities to provide effective care to grieving parents.

The objectives of the study are:
-To assess the level of support available for midwives providing perinatal bereavement care
-To identify the support needs of midwives in order to develop supporting strategies to promote their abilities to provide effective care to grieving parents.

Methodology
Data were collected through a structured questionnaire from three maternity hospitals in Ireland. 277 midwives completed the questionnaire (71% response rate). Ethical approval was received from the three research sites.

Data analysis
A series of univariate and multivariate analysis were conducted as required.

Findings
The findings of the study showed that the provision of encouragement, positive reinforcement and training to midwives were significantly related to their abilities to provide effective care to grieving parents (N=268, r = .421, p < .01).

Conclusion
Midwives, who are the carers of bereaved parents require care and support of the managers of their organisations in order to enhance their abilities to provide effective care to grieving parents.