MBRRACE-UK Signs of Life Guidance Consultation

16 December 2019

BSACP members and other interested individuals are invited to participate in a consultation regarding guidance that the MBRRACE-UK Signs of Life group have been developing for healthcare professionals. This consultation is being launched today, and details of the consultation process follow.

MBRRACE-UK Signs of Life Guidance Consultation

The MBRRACE-UK Signs of Life working group was established to develop guidance to support doctors and midwives with the assessment of signs of life for spontaneous births before 24 weeks of pregnancy where active survival-focused care is not appropriate. This guidance aims to reduce the confusion and distress experienced by parents by increasing consistency in how doctors and midwives assess signs of life in newborn babies. It also aims to increase consistency in the registration of births and deaths of these babies.

The guidance document, which is still in development, is now being released for general consultation. It has been developed by the working group in consultation with many stakeholders and we appreciate the expertise and views they have provided. We are now undertaking this consultation to seek views on the content of the draft guidance to ensure that the guidance is clear, comprehensive and useful for its intended readers.

We wish to hear from a wide range of people, including but not limited to: health professionals, government representatives, charities and organisations that work with women and parents. Please share the survey with anyone you think may be interested.

Please note we are interested in individual views but as this is a distressing and sensitive topic, particularly for those affected by the loss of a baby, we will be consulting parents through parent advocacy groups. Parents who have been affected by this issue may be interested in sharing their views but may find it upsetting and support is available from the Stillbirth and neonatal death charity, Sands: https://www.sands.org.uk/support-you

The consultation will run for a period of 12 weeks from 16 December 2019, closing on 9 March 2020. It is available at: https://leicester.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/signs-of-life

If you have any questions about the consultation, please contact Lucy Smith at lucy.smith@le.ac.uk

The MBRRACE-UK Signs of Life Working Group

Lucy K Smith
Associate Professor/NIHR Fellow
Department of Health Sciences
College of Life Sciences
University of Leicester, George Davies Centre
University Road, Leicester, LE1 7RH, UK
t: +44 (0)116 252 5418
e: lucy.smith@le.ac.uk
w: www.le.ac.uk