Question on when infants die

[BSNtobe2009]

This is going to sound like a terrible question, but it's one that I have been wondering about for years.

In the tragic case when a baby dies, at what point of gestation is the hospital required to send the body to the funeral home versus "taking care of it" at the hospital. Is there a requirement at all?

I took a Death and Dying class many years ago when I was in college, and when we toured a funeral home, I asked the funeral director this, and unfortunately, it wasn't my day, because he and his wife lost an infant just a few months before. (I wanted to crawl under a rock). So my question never got answered.

The only thing that I did learn is that he said they don't recommend embalming for an infant b/c it has a tendency to turn the skin grey.

[BSNtobe2009]

The rules change occasionally. In northern Illinois (now) under 20 weeks parents have option of hospital cremating or parents having funeral. There is a paper they must sign withing 24hrs of delivery.

Then you get into the splitting of hairs, is the fetus over 350gm? if so, parents must make funeral arrangements, any fetus over 20 weeks parents must make arrangements.

We're not allowed to recommend local funeral homes, but we do whisper that there are some that will give parents a deal. Imagine, being in your 20's -30's and having to deal with funeral homes, it's not suppose to be that way.

:balloons:

No it's not, and it's one of the saddest parts of life.

Thanks again for everyone's responses.

[babynurselsa, RN]

My understanding form the funeral home that we dealt with often was that thye actually had like an immersion bath of some sort that they used on the infants versus the equipment they would use on a larger person.