MT1980

Hello everyone. I work in a NICU in Michigan in a poor area and I am looking for ways to make our neonatal loss program better. I have been in our NICU about a year and have realized our neonatal loss program leaves much to be desired. We have no set program as to what to do for the family when we know an infant is passing, etc. I experienced a loss at 21 weeks approx 1 1/2 yrs ago which lead me to the NICU so it is my experience with my loss that drives me to take the pics, lots of hand and footprints as well as make a shadowbox for the family with the personal effects of the infant. Unfortunately, not many people know what to do and it all varies as to what is done and expected. An example is we had a 22 weeker pass away and no one even thought to take pics until the baby had been deceased for 12 hours. The rationale was that the mom didn't want pics so they didn't think they would need them .Later the mom did want the pics so they had to get the body from the morgue and take pics. This is unacceptable in my view. We don't have alot of loss but I wanted to design a comprehensive loss program as to what to do for parents, etc. This is a personal desire of mine and could use your views as well as any info you can send me. Thanks so much.