Support for Families
The Utah Pregnancy After Loss Program is designed specifically to support families after a pregnancy loss, newborn death, or severely complicated pregnancy. We see patients who have experienced the following:
- Stillbirth for any reason
- Newborn death for any reason
- Termination of pregnancy for medical or obstetric reasons
- Recurrent or other types of pregnancy loss
- Placental disorders including preeclampsia, fetal growth restriction, and the like
- Preterm birth due to medical or pregnancy problems
For those whose loss has just happened, the trauma is real, with answers and support hard to find. For those who seek another baby after loss, the road to a successful pregnancy is often a terrifying and lonely journey.
Families who have suffered loss, major pregnancy complications, and families who hope for another baby, not only deserve cutting-edge medical care, but they also often need mental health support in ways unique to their experience.
Our program creates a support team of specialists for you:
- Physicians and nurses
- Mental health professionals
- Peer support specialists
We work with you to support you after your loss, or if you are in (or planning) your next pregnancy after loss. We also provide specialized care if your pregnancy is complicated by placental disorders.
Why Choose U of U Health?
The Utah Pregnancy After Loss Program is modeled after the Rainbow Clinic developed in the UK by Dr. Alex Heazell at the University of Manchester.
As a pending member of the Rainbow Clinic Network, our program is customized for parents who have experienced the death of their baby and designed to meet your needs. We understand your unique medical and mental health requirements. We also acknowledge the traumatic grief and emotional stressors that you face as you cope with your recent loss or pregnancy complicated by placental disorders or preterm birth, OR plan to enter another pregnancy after loss.
Our mental health professionals and peer support specialists (bereaved parents) work hand in hand with our medical team. This ensures that families and their babies experience the best possible individualized care from the waiting room to the delivery room and beyond.
Benefits of Care
Customized Appointments
- Longer and more frequent appointments
- Referrals for additional care, including mental health
- A feedback system to improve care based on your suggestions
- Exceptional care, regardless of insurance status
Advanced Clinical Care
- Additional ultrasounds and non-stress tests
- Delivery planning that takes your clinical history into account
- Labor and delivery tours for anxious parents prior to birth
- Access to cutting-edge research and preventative care
Support
- Compassionate points of contact from all hospital staff during clinic visits
- On-demand resources for physical and mental health concerns including mental health professionals
- Specially trained staff to ensure understanding of the parent perspective and best practices
- Coming soon: A peer support network led by parents whose babies have died and who have had children following their loss
Ways to Help Others Like You
You will have the opportunity to participate in local and global research, which will help others like you:
- Help identify stillbirth causes
- Learn more about placental abnormalities
- Provide solutions that result in healthy pregnancies
Find a Utah Pregnancy After Loss Provider
Consultation After Your Stillbirth, Newborn Death, Other loss, or Complicated Pregnancy
Are you looking for answers? Do you know why your baby died or if a safe pregnancy is even possible? If you have experienced a recent loss, you can schedule a consultation to meet with one of our physicians.
Our doctors will sit with you to discuss pertinent medical and obstetric information, autopsy results, results of placental and other evaluations, pregnancy risks, research that is relevant to you, and possible reasons for your loss.
If you are coming to us from outside the U of U Health system, we can support you through the process of requesting your previous records or requesting additional testing and obtaining the results. We’ll also recommend appropriate clinical care (within your system) based on the results.
Our goal is to help you find answers where possible, provide solutions where we can, and be with you as you move forward in your grief and healing.
Our program’s goal is to support you physically and emotionally with a care plan customized to your family’s needs. You can also help others like you as we build our support community.
These consultations can be either in-person or virtual.
In-Person Visits During Pregnancy
Following your initial consultation, we will offer you a symbol/pin to wear to your subsequent appointments. This ensures that from the moment you enter the hospital facility, hospital staff will recognize that you are a pregnancy after loss patient.
During your appointment, you will have a medical assessment. We will also want to discuss any mental health concerns that you may be experiencing.
Many parents who have endured stillbirth or newborn loss often struggle with isolation, anxiety, depression, or PTSD. We will provide immediate resources and referrals for these situations. Our team includes a psychiatrist and we collaborate on mental health support with faculty at the Huntsman Mental Health Institute.
During your appointment, we may also share opportunities to participate in research trials or studies that our program and others are conducting locally as well as globally. These research studies may contribute to possible answers and actions for future patients like you, as well as improving clinical care for other patients with pregnancy loss.
You will have time to study these options, as well as ask questions about potential concerns.
Remember that if you are feeling anxious about your baby and your pregnancy, you are welcome to make an appointment any time for a quick check or request mental health support. Our goal is to create a team environment between clinicians, you as the parents, and your baby.
Coming soon: Peer Support Network
As you leave the clinic, you will be able to stop by our peer support station, browse informational materials, and pause to speak with another parent who has been through a similar pregnancy after loss journey.
This parent will guide you to support groups outside the clinic setting and to further resources to assist you during your pregnancy journey, as well as following your baby’s delivery. Speaking with other parents can bring healing, friendship, and an empathetic support network unique to the pregnancy after loss experience.
Virtual Visit
Not a local to the Salt Lake City area? No problem. Our program is designed to help parents in remote locations. Consult with our clinic doctors virtually, who can then order additional testing or bloodwork, as well as offer suggestions to your own physician.
Peer Support Network
We are currently developing a peer support network for our clinic. The network will include classes for parents who have just experienced stillbirth or newborn death, classes for parents who are pregnant after loss, and classes for parents after the delivery of their subsequent babies. We will also offer labor and delivery tours, and peer support specialists available during clinic hours.
Peer Support Resources
Care for Everyone
All families are welcome at our clinic, including those who are part of the LGBTQIA+ community, adoptive parents, birth parents who are placing their baby, and members of other underserved communities.
Because the University of Utah is a research institution, we are also an excellent resource for other doctors and researchers throughout the world.
Read more about our Stillbirth Research Program.