SISTer’s Care: Co-deSIgn of STillbirth CARE in Benin and Malawi

Stillbirths are one of the most depressing realities of our time: Each year 2 million babies die before or during birth.

Compassionate care from diagnosis, throughout hospital stay and after discharge – which is standard in high income countries –can mitigate the psychological, social, and economic consequences on parents and midwives and may trigger more open discussions in facilities for improvement work.We aim to co-design and evaluate a culturally sensitive 2-component stillbirth bereavement care intervention addressed to bereaved women and their families as well as maternity providers.This project will harness the research infrastructure of the EU-funded implementation science project ALERT operating in Benin, Malawi, Tanzania and Uganda.

Using co-design methodology, we first aim to understand bereaved mothers’ and maternity providers’ perceptions and expectations of stillbirth care. Feedback and reflection meetings we ensure that the intervention is also applicable to the other ALERT countries.

The adapted intervention will be implemented and tested using a cluster-randomized design in hospitals of Benin and Malawi.

Outcome measures of  bereaved mothers’ mental health and on healthcare providers workplace stress and burnout, confidence to provide stillbirth care as well as the quality of perinatal audits.

The research work should lead to improved evidence on how to break through the negative consequences of dying during birth which affects large parts of the society.