Perinatal Hospice Video

Thanks, Dr. Stacy Trasanco, for getting the word out on this. Stacy says on her blog:

I noticed a dedicated commenter who went by the name, Perinatal Hospice Nurse, in the blogosphere trying really hard to get her message out. She agreed to put (just the beginning of) her thoughts into an article for Ignitum Today.

Here’s an excerpt:

About a year ago, a well known Protestant pastor had a question posed to him on a radio show. A young mother called in with a heartbreaking problem – her twins were conjoined and she wanted to know if she could end the pregnancy because even if she continued, the babies would likely both die. She wanted to know if abortion (essentially prenatal euthanasia) could be justified for Christians based on life expectancy and possible suffering. The Pastor told her to go ahead and consider the abortion acceptable because the babies’ life expectancy was bleak.

This is my response.

I am a nurse with a specialty in Perinatal Bereavement and Perinatal Hospice; I care for women experiencing pregnancy loss, infant death, and pregnancies where the baby’s life is expected to be brief. To me, there were gaps in this discussion and I would like to fill-in a few of them.

There was a time not long ago when expectant parents who were given grave prenatal diagnosis had to abort or struggle with their challenge alone, completely unsupported by the medical community. Nursing textbooks from the 50′s told nurses to not let parents even see the “monstrosities”. In the last decade, a new model of care has evolved in Medicine & Nursing – that of Perinatal Hospice and Palliative Care. There are professionals prepared to interact with parents from the moment that an adverse diagnosis is made. This model of care is not available everywhere but there are websites and organizations who do long-distance mentoring to people who don’t have a program available locally.

Be sure to watch the video. It’s not easy to watch, but when you do, it’s obvious why this is a much better approach to health care than prenatal euthanasia. The short life of a dying infant is indeed an opportunity for sacred parenting, and while I don’t know how I might survive something like this, I definitely know it would be easier with the care that this very experienced, very compassionate perinatal hospice nurse is offering. Her contact information is at the end of the video, and she welcomes questions and ideas. She knows how to implement a program like this. Let her help.

Here's the video; as Stacy says, it's not easy to watch. Watch it anyway...