Families who experience perinatal or infant loss will be able to spend precious private final moments with their child in a new hospital bereavement room.
The dedicated room at the Warrnambool Base Hospital is a joint initiative between South West Healthcare and the recently-established We've Got You Foundation.
We've Got You launched in August and supports families experiencing the loss of a child from conception through to age sixteen.
The bereavement room will be a multi-functional space that can be used in a range of circumstances when families face grief. It will be a warm and safe place for families to say goodbye to their baby, child or loved one.
The implementation of the room will be managed by a newly-appointed perinatal bereavement project co-ordinator at South West Healthcare. It's understood the room and accompanying staff member is a first for regional health services in Victoria, and will help bridge the gap between the care received at Melbourne tertiary hospitals and the care families can now access locally.
We've Got You founders and south-west parents Kathryn and Jared Barkla and Madeline and Matthew McConnell identified the need for a hospital bereavement room after the loss of their daughters Eloise and Wren.
"When we lost Wren at the Royal Children's we were able to access a space that had all the things we needed to extend our time with Wren, and to help us make memories before saying goodbye on our terms when we were ready," Mrs McConnell said. "It was a cocoon where we could just be and hold space until we were able to take those first few steps out into the world."
The founders have been instrumental in fundraising to establish the room and have also had input into its design, features and décor.
The room will be discreetly named so that staff can approach the family with increased sensitivity.
It will also feature:
- A double bed, suitable for both the families, and the clinicians caring for the mother and baby
- En-suite bathroom, small kitchenette
- Cot, fitted with suitable cooling so that parents have easy access to their baby
- Comfortable chairs and a rocking chair
- Appropriately designed décor
It will enhance existing services such as photography, the ability to make hand and foot prints, and access to legal and funeral services who specialise in perinatal death.
The room was funded through donations to the foundation including a $10,000 donation from the Hopkins Heights development and a portion of the $27,000 raised at the inaugural We've Got You Gala ball on Saturday night at Deakin University's Brother Fox.
"We understand that the smallest of details can mean a great deal to recently bereaved parents, and the environment in which care is delivered is of particular importance," South West Healthcare chief executive Craig Fraser said.
"The bereavement room will be a place where families can linger with their child and soak up all the time they need before they choose to say goodbye in their way."
"We wanted to ensure that what we were able to offer families was akin to what is available in Melbourne if not better. The co-ordinator will be tasked with looking at best practice with respect to bereavement and ensuring that we can continue to improve our services and training for staff," Mr Fraser said.
He said a dedicated bereavement co-ordinator would be an important link in the chain between the community and the hospital over the coming months as it made the important changes.
"When families lose a child at a hospital in Melbourne, they often return to the south-west without referral support or any ongoing care. We are keen to forge greater working relationships with our Melbourne counterparts to ensure that this doesn't happen, and that we can begin to address some of the silent trauma that people carry with them in our community.
"We are very proud to be working with We've Got You on a range of initiatives in this space, and I can't thank Kathryn, Jared, Madeline and Matthew enough for letting us into their lives and for sharing their experiences with us in such an open and constructive way," he said.
"Thanks to the work the foundation is doing to raise these funds, we are able to do more as a health service to support families. We've Got You is an incredible legacy for both Eloise and Wren, who would be proud of their parents."
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