New fetal death certificates?

U.S.A. California

Published

  • by LydiaNN
    Specializes in Public Health, DEI.

Have any of you NICU or L&D nurses heard about this? A NICU social worker told me that the death certificate clerk with whom she works told her that effective in 2007, these new questions will be asked before a certificate is issued for a fetal demise, and that mothers ''can't'' refuse to answer (I wonder how they're planning on forcing them) If true, this is distressing, especially in that they are asking about receiving WIC in the same breath as they're asking about smoking. It is likely to worry the Moms who did receive WIC that they're going to be judged for that, and the Moms who didn't may wonder if it would have made a difference. I also don't think they can count on any sort of an honest response when it comes to asking about how many cigarettes were smoked.

These are the questions I've been told will be asked:

-Did Mother receive WIC food while pregnant with this child?

-How many cigarettes or packs of cigarettes did the mother smoke during each of the following time periods?:

three months before pregnancy: # of cigarettes or # of packs?

first three months of pregnancy: # of cigarettes or # of packs?

second three months of pregnancy: # of cigarettes or # of packs?

last three months of pregnancy: # of cigarettes or # of packs?

-Mother's pregnancy weight - lbs?

-Mother's delivery weight - lbs?

-Mother's height? feet? inches?

-Estimated time of fetal death?

options:

dead at time of first assessment, no labor ongoing

dead at time of first assessment, labor ongoing

died during labor, after first assessment

unknown time of fetal death

RNmommy

129 Posts

Specializes in Postpartum, Lactation.

I thought that babies had to be born alive to get a death cert? I thought that fetal demises specifically did not get a death cert. Hmmm....

Anyway, I think that all of those questions are inappropriate and come across as insinuating that the mother's financial status or weight contributed to her child's death. :(

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