Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora and the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) are now working on a new portal through the Whetūrangitia website, which is a Government website already used to offer support to grieving parents.
“Whetūrangitia was created with compassion and cultural safety at its heart. Enabling parents to complete a stillbirth registration through this site will mean they can engage with a process that acknowledges their loss and helps connect them with appropriate services and support,” Doocey said.
Serra Clark, who has previously spoken to the Herald about her experience having a stillbirth, said the changes were a step in the right direction, but much more was needed.
“It is more compassionate and it is something more relevant that we can do when our baby dies, but it’s not much.
“That is something you do that takes five minutes. I don’t even remember us doing it,” she said.
Clark said that a much more important change would be adding support for people six weeks after birth.
“If your baby has died, everyone comes to visit initially and then there’s nothing - everyone goes on with their life and there’s no further support,” Clark said.
“There should be specialist care available for anyone going through any pregnancy loss,” she said.
“It is such a unique kind of grief,” she said.
Health NZ will fund the DIA to build the site.
“We’re committed to making sure parents who lose a baby are met with dignity, care and the right support at every step. This change is a simple but meaningful way to reduce harm and show compassion at one of the most difficult times in someone’s life,” Doocey said.
“Losing a baby is a heartbreaking experience. For too long, families have had no choice but to complete stillbirth registrations through the same online process designed for parents welcoming home a healthy newborn. That’s not good enough, we’ve heard from grieving families that it adds unnecessary pain at an already traumatic and distressing time,” he said.
Every year in New Zealand, about 700 to 900 families experience perinatal loss and an additional 13,000 to 15,000 families are affected by miscarriage before 20 weeks.
