Reducing stillbirth across Western Australia

The Stillbirth CRE provides a suite of approved stillbirth prevention and bereavement care resources.

These evidence-based resources have been collaboratively designed for maternity healthcare professionals. The Stillbirth CRE has partnered with leading professional colleges and research institutions across Australia to develop these resources.

The CRE have recently released the culturally adapted Safer Baby Bundle resources, to ensure that as many women and families, and their healthcare teams, are aware of these culturally safe and free resources. The information is tailored for priority populations in a range of formats, in line with the National Stillbirth Action and Implementation Plan, and continuing work to reduce stillbirth rates in Australia.

The Stronger Bubba Born resources for First Nations Communities, and the Growing a Healthy Baby resources for migrant and refugee communities, were developed over several years, and co-designed and tested with communities.  These adapted resources demonstrate what we can achieve when we work together with the common goal of ensuring all communities have care and resources that meet their needs.

Updates include.

• Stronger Bubba Born resources for First Nations communities, along with the Growing A Healthy Baby resources for migrant and refugee communities.
• The Growing a Healthy Baby provides adapted information to watch, read and listen for Arabic, Dari, Dinka and Karen speaking communities.
• The Stronger Bubba Born resources introduce five evidence-based areas for pregnant women to focus on that can reduce the number of Sorry Business Babies (Stillbirths) among Indigenous communities.

• Recently published new videos, fact sheets and eLearning modules for healthcare professionals on learn.stillbirthcre.org.au/
• The Safer Baby Bundle eLearning course has been updated and new eLearning courses, titled Stronger Bubba Born Healthy Yarning Guide and Partnering with families of refugee & migrant backgrounds, are now live.

• A new eLearning course, videos and fact sheet will also be available soon for interpreters working in maternity settings.

• Five newly completed translations of the Safer Baby information for Amharic, Farsi, Kirundi, Somali and Tamil speaking communities.
• This takes our translated information to 30 languages, all of which are available at saferbaby.org.au/ and available with all resources for healthcare professionals at learn.stillbirthcre.org.au/

Pathwest

PathWest’s perinatal pathology services (external site) supports families all over WA affected by the death of a child shortly after or before birth by giving them an opportunity to understand the reasons for their loss.

Offering a state-wide service that includes:

• Non-coronial post mortem examinations of your baby
• Viewings with parents and their families to spend time with their baby
• Cremations for stillborn babies of less than 28 weeks gestation
• Mementos in the form of photographs and hand & foot prints (if possible).

Maternity dashboard

The Maternity Dashboard (WA Health staff only) whas been developed by the Healthcare Quality Intelligence Unit (HQIU) in partnership with the Maternal and Child Health team using the Midwives Notification System (MNS) as a source of data for the purpose of local quality improvement.

Safer Baby Bundle (SBB) symposium

Please contact The Chief Nursing and Midwifery Office or Jennifer.Watchorn@health.wa.gov.au for further information on future workshops that are available.

SBB eLearning package

The Safer Baby Bundle module provides evidence based information for maternity health care providers on the 5 elements of the bundle: Smoking Cessation, Fetal Growth Restriction (FGR), Decreased Fetal Movements (DFM), Side Sleeping and Timing of Birth. This eLearning course has been updated in August 2024 to align with most recent evidence and updated resources and can be found here: Home | Stillbirth CRE eLearning

If you are interested in a SBB Masterclass, please contact Jennifer.Watchorn@health.wa.gov.au

IMPROVE (IMproving Perinatal Mortality Review & Outcomes via Education)

The IMPROVE workshop is designed to address the educational needs of health professionals involved in clinical care around the time of stillbirth or neonatal death, including clinicians, obstetricians, pathologists, midwives, bereavement specialists, social workers and other professionals.   

Interactive stations are organised around the sections of the PSANZ perinatal mortality guidelines:

• Station one: Communication with parents about perinatal autopsy 
• Station two: Autopsy and placental examination 
• Station three: Investigation of fetal deaths 
• Station four: Examination of babies who die in the perinatal period 
• Station five: Institutional perinatal mortality audit and classification 
• Station six: Respectful and supportive bereavement care

Contact Jennifer.Watchorn@health.wa.gov.au for any further information.

This course consists of six modules and is designs to support maternity healthcare professionals in responding to women who have experience stillbirth, and gain crucial learnings. Each module takes approximately 20 minutes to complete and provide essential training for obstetricians, neonatologists, midwives, nurses, general practitioners and antenatal staff.

The e-learning can be found here: Home | Stillbirth CRE eLearning

The Stillbirth CRE is pleased to provide a suite of approved stillbirth prevention and bereavement care resources (external site) for women and parents. These consist of:

• Flyers
• Posters

Indigenous resources

Culturally adapted Safer Baby Bundle resources (external site) have been co-designed with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

Multicultural resources

Culturally adapted Safer Baby Bundle (external site) resources have been co-designed with Arabic, Dari, Dinka and Karen language-speaking communities.

Translated resources

Safer Baby resources (external site) have been translated word for word into 27 languages.

Comfort, support and more information

Aside from your family, friends and the health professionals involved in caring for you and your baby, there are agencies that can offer you support. Further information can be found on the PathWest website.