Supporting the needs of midwives caring for women with perinatal loss in South Africa

Midwives play an important role in assisting women to cope with the initial trauma of perinatal loss, but their own coping and support needs can be overlooked. The purpose of the study was to explore the coping behaviours and support needs of midwives caring for women with perinatal loss. A qualitative, exploratory, descriptive design was used. Data were collected using semi-structured one-on-one interviews with 13 purposively sampled participants from the Nelson Mandela Bay Health District. Three themes emerged concerning midwives' coping mechanisms in relation to perinatal loss, their views on support from management and the need for psychological and emotional support. The participants felt the need for unit-based psychological and emotional support. They called for the development of a protocol for midwives to manage perinatal loss events. They felt that the layout of the labour wards needed to be redesigned and that the problem of staff shortages needed to be urgently addressed.