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Stillbirth Gets Short Shrift, Even From Physicians
Facilitators Jeanine McGrath, center left, and Andrea Cumberland, center right, talk with members of a prenatal loss support group at Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring. With them are Aver Lamb, partially visible at left, Marie Monday, far right, and Kim Lewis.
(Ricky Carioti / The Washington Post)
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There was another woman who called her obstetrician's office after the stillbirth of her daughter and heard the following prompts: "Press 1 to make an appointment, press 2 to make a payment, press 3 for prescriptions."
"I have a dead baby," the woman told McGrath's support group. "Which button do I push?"
McGrath said part of the problem stems from large obstetrics practices, which encourage women to visit each doctor in case that one is on call the day of delivery. It becomes a classic case of groupthink, where none of the doctors wants to deviate from the tried-and-true workflow.
"For many of the [medical] groups, they're huge," McGrath said. "It's seven or eight doctors and they all want to see you. Where is it in the prenatal plan? Somebody is going to talk about it, but they just expect someone else to do it."
Now someone is trying to talk about stillbirth, and it's a most unlikely source: Congress. Last June, then-Sen. Barack Obama introduced the Preventing Stillbirth and SUID Act of 2008, but it was unable to gain much traction. ("SUID" stands for "sudden unexpected infant death.")
Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg (D-N.J.) has picked up the cause and is crafting similar legislation that, according to sources familiar with the bill, will be brought to the Senate floor before the August recess.
"We need to know more about stillbirths to help increase awareness and prevention," Lautenberg said. "We are crafting legislation to improve data collection so we can better understand what's causing stillbirths and help parents looking for answers."
The bill, which is more policy- and data-oriented than research-driven, will expand upon registries of stillbirths already in place in Iowa and metropolitan Atlanta. Lautenberg and the bill's other sponsors hope to have as many as a dozen states participating in the registry and providing a standard protocol for data collection following each stillbirth. Among the bill's other provisions is a campaign to increase public awareness and grief support services.
"This bill will at least raise the awareness," said Fretts, who has consulted with Lautenberg's staff on this bill, "and that's a big start."
My wife and I could have used that.
Comments: goldenbacha@washpost.com.