Specialist bereavement midwife in South Yorkshire discusses 'mandatory' training for staff
We've been speaking to Shahida Mehrban who works at Rotherham Hospital on the issue of baby loss support
Nationally, around one in four hospital trusts aren't offering midwives training on how to support a family who've experienced the loss of a baby.
This week we're investigating the impact of stillbirth, miscarriage, or neonatal death on our community.
At the NHS Foundation Trust in Rotherham-midwives & doctors must take part in regular, mandatory training around the subject of baby loss support.
Shahida Mehrban is a Specialist Bereavement Midwife at Rotherham Hospital:
"You're constantly learning on the job while you're caring for families, because every family has different needs and requests.
"Also, you're constantly booking yourself onto training programmes which focus on grief support for families experiencing baby loss, so it's a constant learning curve all the time.
"Delivering news around baby loss is something that nobody ever wants to do.
"You don't come into midwifery to say those words to families, but sadly it does happen from time to time.
"All you can do is be compassionate and show that you're human.
"You've almost got to take your midwifery head off a little bit and show those families that you're there for them.
"We have mandatory training for midwives, doctors and everybody across the board here at the Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust.
"I help to deliver this training on a monthly basis. It's an ongoing process which never stops here."
Shahida's also been speaking to us about plans to open better facilities there in the near future:
"The current bereavement suite isn't situated in the best position to be honest, and it hasn't been for a number of years.
"We've made it work and we've made it work quite well.
"However, the new facility which is going to open soon is going to be based at the side of reception on the delivery suite.
"So, it'll be a lot better; patients won't have to go on to the labour ward itself, unless there's any kind of emergency, or unless it's necessary for any medical reasons."