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Essential Guides for Uncertain Futures in Perinatal Palliative Care

These vital resources aim to support families during uncertain times and help staff better understand neonatal palliative care options.


In the last few months in the UK we have seen the launch of two significant publications which aim to support teams caring for babies and their families with an uncertain future.  

Caring for your baby when the future is uncertain, developed by Together for Short Lives and Bliss, is an information booklet for parents about perinatal palliative care and is a resource for parents who have had conversations with their care team either during pregnancy or after birth, that their baby’s future is uncertain, guiding them through this extremely difficult time and helping think about the best care for their baby and the support they need as a family. It aims to provide parents with information and sources of support when there is uncertainty about their baby’s future and the need for a palliative care approach.

Understanding perinatal palliative care

The British Association of Perinatal Medicine (BAPM) in conjunction with the Association for Paediatric Palliative Medicine (APPM) and developed with parents and an expert working group published Recognising Uncertainty: An integrated framework for palliative care in perinatal medicine. The framework includes guidance on helping teams recognise which babies may benefit from palliative care, moving away from the previous list of specific conditions and categories (previous BAPM framework, 2010), recognising complexity and uncertainty, and suggesting three different ways of doing so: 1) the diagnostic approach 2) multidisciplinary concern and 3) the surprise question. This integrated framework of perinatal palliative care, appropriate for all cases where there exists uncertainty about a baby’s outcome, emphasises that palliative care is not synonymous with end-of-life care but rather represents an active and total approach to care which can be delivered from the point of diagnosis and alongside treatments directed at cure.

How these resources can make a difference

The framework highlights how palliative care is very much ‘everyone’s business’ and can and should be provided by existing perinatal teams with support from community and specialist services where required. It is intended as supportive guidance for all healthcare professionals working in perinatal medicine across antenatal and neonatal services. It is not a detailed guideline for how to practice palliative care (for example how to manage symptoms or develop advance care plans) and does not replace specialist expertise. 

We hope that both of these vital resources will support families facing an extremely unsettling and devastating time when they are told that their baby’s future is uncertain, and give staff caring for these families, confidence to better understand neonatal palliative care and the options available to them.

Dr Helena Dunbar
Director of Service Development and Improvement Together for Short Lives 

Alex Mancini
National Lead Nurse for Neonatal Palliative Care
National Neonatal Palliative Care Project
Chelsea & Westminster NHS Foundation Trust, CW+
The True Colours Trust 


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