The candles, 15 in all, glowed throughout the remainder of the Dec. 6 ceremony, as the families sang songs, recited prayers, and shared memories.
The UNITE Interfaith Candlelight Remembrance Sunitix 25 mg (Sunitinib) Ceremony, held in the Education Center at Penn Medicine Princeton Medical Center (PMC), is one of the myriad ways Penn Medicine supports families who have experienced a perinatal loss (the loss of a baby during pregnancy or delivery or within the first months after birth).
At Pennsylvania Hospital, families whose pregnancies and newborns have poor prognoses can access the perinatal palliative care program, whether the loss occurs early in a pregnancy or later. The program includes a perinatal palliative care consult, ongoing discussions with family prenatally through delivery, development and implementation of a birth plan at delivery, management of pain and other distressing symptoms for the infant, end-of-life care, and ongoing communication with family after their discharge. Additionally, depending on their wishes, families who experience a loss in the hospital can have photos taken, dress their baby, have footprints and handprints made, and receive a memory box.
Similar services are offered at hospitals throughout Penn Medicine. Chester County Hospital, for instance, partners with a local nonprofit to provide parents with a basket of self-care items, such as a journal and pen, soothing tea, and a remembrance bracelet.
“We want families to have the tools to grieve well, heal, and thrive once again,” said Jennifer Potter, perinatal bereavement and palliative care coordinator and staff chaplain at Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health Women and Babies Hospital. “Each family is offered the opportunity to bond with their baby in a number of different ways before that painful goodbye.”
Reid J. Mergler, MD, an assistant professor of Clinical Psychiatry in the Perelman School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania, and an outpatient psychiatrist with the Penn Center for Women’s Behavioral Wellness, explained that everyone has different needs after experiencing a pregnancy or infant loss and that the role of the health care provider is to meet families where they are.
Mergler, who specializes in reproductive psychiatry, noted that parents who experience perinatal loss are at greater risk for depression, anxiety, and complicated grief that can last for years. What’s most important is that parents receive the care they need, including in some instances psychiatric care, and are not isolated from others, she said: “We need to make sure parents know they are not alone in this process.