Sometimes even health care providers can struggle with how or what to say to a patient in their care, especially when there is no answers for a mother when she loses her baby.
Now, one local registered nurse is devoting her time to help hospital staff provide more compassionate care when this happens. Wendi Stumborg says she found her true calling when she began working in the labour and delivery unit at Royal University Hospital (RUH) in Saskatoon.
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Over the course of four years, she helped deliver hundreds of babies and cared for families who received the devastating news that their baby was stillborn – which according to statistics is approximately one in every 200 deliveries.
“You have to get them through it safely and kinda follow their lead and kinda let them know what’s available as far as care and coping afterward,” said Stumborg.
“You don’t ever get to see them when they go home and how they do.”
She only knows from her own experience just how hard the grieving process can be. Almost six months ago, Stumborg lost a baby of her own just shy of 37 weeks into her pregnancy.
“I woke up and I was watching TV, kinda having a lazy day, I was coasting because I was done work and just relaxing but I hadn’t felt the baby move,” Stumborg said.
“I packed a bag and went into the hospital and we had an ultrasound and he was gone.”
On July 3, she delivered a stillborn baby boy and the couple made as many memories with him with what little time they had. Harris Calvin Stumborg would be baptized and laid to rest three days later.
“I do believe people leave the hospital maybe not knowing what their options were and that’s the stuff I cry about,”Stumborg said.
“I do believe that at the end of the day, it’s our job as nurses to provide that education.”
Stumborg no longer works on the unit, finding it too difficult to go back after the loss of Harris. Her work to advocate for families who have experienced the same type of loss has only just begun.
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She is now calling on eight to 10 families who delivered at RUH and experienced the loss of a baby at 24 weeks or later into their pregnancy at least two years ago to share their experience and insight into how health care staff can provide sensitive and more compassionate care.
A video will become an informative resource of health care teams on what to do and say when this type of loss happens. Stumborg says the hope is to have the learning resource available to Saskatoon Health Region staff by the summer and distributed to other jurisdictions.
“I think it’s going to highlight an awesome opportunity especially moving into the new children’s hospital, I just feel we make a huge difference and just give everybody the best possible experience they could possibly have during such a devastating time.”
For more information on video and how get involved, call 1-306-966-2472 or email perinatal.loss.study@usask.ca.