The Resolved Through Sharing (RTS) Perinatal bereavement model is an approach used for working with birthing people and their families who have experienced a perinatal loss. RTS is designed to help families cope with their grief and integrate the loss in their lives, meet the needs of the families during the initial crisis, and offer comprehensive care to each member of the family affected by the loss. This paper utilizes a case illustration to describe a year-long bereavement follow-up of an undocumented underinsured Latina woman who suffered a stillbirth during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and the hostile anti-immigrant policy during the Trump presidency. The case illustration is based on a composite case of several Latina women who had pregnancy losses with similar outcomes, demonstrating how a perinatal palliative care (PPC) social worker provided ongoing bereavement support to a patient who experienced a stillbirth. The case illustrates how the PPC social worker utilized the RTS model, incorporated the patient’s cultural values, and acknowledged systemic challenges which resulted in the patient receiving comprehensive, holistic support that aided her emotional and spiritual recovery from her stillbirth. The author ends with a call to action for providers in the field of perinatal palliative care to incorporate practices that allow for greater access and equity for all birthing people.
This chapter addresses the multifaceted role of the behavioral health clinician (BHC) in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) setting. It is guided by trauma-informed and culturally informed practices that target the family system and medical system surrounding the infant patient. It discusses the need for perinatal mental health screening and psychosocial assessment in the NICU, and it offers recommendations for the integration of these assessments into standard workflow. The BHC is essential to the provision of interventions that support parental, infant, and staff mental health and well-being in the NICU. Primary targets for BHC intervention and impact may include, but are not limited to, helping parents and staff understand the reality of the traumas faced in the NICU, offering individualized coping resources and group-based support, laying the groundwork for continued processing of the NICU experience, enhancing patient–provider communication, and acting as a liaison for internal and external support resources.
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