Stillbirth Death by another name

2018  |    36 mins    |  Stillbirth

David Monteith is an actor, director and tutor/coach. He is also the co-founder of the long running podcast network Geek Syndicate. David and his wife Siobhan began their journey from innocence and naivety to bereaved parents when their 2nd daughter, Grace died in 2014. In 2015 David won the Inspirational father category at the Butterfly Awards and since then has spoken on stillbirth issues all over the country. He has spoken internationally to an audience of 6000 at a conference in Denmark and at a march in Washington DC. He and his wife are continuing to raise awareness by establishing the charity ‘Grace in Action’ to help parents explore Life after Stillbirth.

Here David Monteith gives an energetic and extremely moving talk on the stillbirth of his daughter and on how healthcare professionals can help bereaved parents – how to treat them sensitively and give them the choices they require to come to terms with their loss.

The presentation received a standing ovation in the lecture hall at the Northern Maternity & Midwifery Festival.

David Monteith, Founder, Grace in Action

Preventing Stillbirths A National Campaign

2016  |    24 mins    |  Stillbirth

Professor Jason Gardosi is Director of the Perinatal Institute in Birmingham, UK – a multidisciplinary not-for-profit organisation set up to enhance the quality and safety of maternity care (www.perinatal.org.uk). The Institute is recipient of consecutive national Patient Safety Awards in 2013, 2014 and 2015 and the 2015 BMJ Award for Clinical Leadership, for reducing stillbirth rates in England. Jason’s main interests are fetal growth, antepartum and intrapartum surveillance, perinatal epidemiology and clinical audit.

Here Professor Gardosi explains why late-onset growth restriction is a key avoidable risk factor in the likelihood of stillbirth. He describes the evidence behind the use of GROW charts and the Growth Assessment programme (GAP) and the impact on stillbirth rates. He goes on to discuss further initiatives to reduce the prevalence of stillbirth.

Professor Jason Gardosi MD FRCSED FRCOG
Director of the Perinatal Institute in Birmingham, UK

Documenting a family’s experience of baby bereavement

2018  |    25 mins    |  Stillbirth

Rachel Hayden gives a presentation on documenting a family’s experience of baby bereavement – how does it work and what evidence is there that it helps?

Rachel Hayden, Consultant, Gifts of Remembrance

Reviewing trends and themes of stillbirths locally

2018  |    27 mins    |  Stillbirth

Laura Bassett, Risk Manager at Cardiff & Vale Health Board presents on the development of a maternity forum to review stillbirths locally in order to learn from events and make improvements to services. She explains the true multidisciplinary nature of the forum, which includes pathologists and parent representatives, to which all staff invited. She highlights that the investigation of cases has helped to improve relationships and encouraged participation in other areas of the service. Laura describes how the forum evolved, presenting the audit data for a year, and discusses how this data has been used to help improve care.

Laura Bassett, Risk Manager, Cardiff & Vale Health Board

Empowering women with safer pregnancy information reduces stillbirth

2017  |    23 mins    |  Stillbirth

Heidi Eldridge, Chief Executive Officer of the pregnancy charity Mama Academy describes her personal experience of gestational diabetes and the still birth of her son Aidan. Heidi explains how with access to better information another outcome could have been possible – she only met her consultant once and was told not to worry about the possibility of Still Birth, despite her increased risk. She wishes she had been advised to monitor her babies movements and that her trust had been running the GAP programme. This presentation illustrates the importance of midwives and maternity healthcare providers empowering pregnant women with knowledge.

Heidi Eldridge