Intersect Perinatal Hospice

Summary:

Explores the difficult subject, in four segments, of preparing simultaneously for a baby's birth and for a baby's death. Includes perspectives of a pregnant mother, support practitioners, ethics forum, and the use of language.

Additional Credits and Funding:

Recorded and Edited by Miles Eddy. Special thanks to Nancy English from the Fetal Concerns Program, Lois Booth at Hospice del Valle, Mary Van Pelt, and Eric Whitney at KRCC.

Timely on:

November: National Hospice Month

Tones:

Earnest, Informational, NPR NewsMagazine-y

Language:

English

Description:

This half-hour show is presented in four related segments, which can be aired individually.

SEGMENT 1 - "A Parents Story" (7:17) - Hospice care is something that most people associate with elderly people, or at least terminally ill adults. But what happens when the life that is ending is still in the womb? Janell lives in southern Colorado and learned early in her pregnancy that there was a serious problem with her unborn son.

SEGMENT 2 - "A Story of Perinatal Support" (5:32) - Thousands of parents a year are faced with making informed decisions when their unborn baby has an uncertain outcome due to birth defects and other life threatening problems. The Fetal Concerns Program provides comprehensive care and support when pregnancy is complicated by concerns of fetal abnormalities. Representatives of this rare kind of program speak about the special support needs of families.

SEGMENT 3 - "Perinatal / Neonatal Ethical Issues" (7:02) - Do you believe in being allowed to die a natural death, or should people be kept alive at all costs? Those are tough questions, and they get mixed up into an even tougher dilemma for parents who discover that the child they have conceived has been diagnosed with a terminal illness. Not all people face the same situation with the same beliefs about what is right and wrong, and the ethical issues placed on the family and the medical communities are enormous. The 4th Forum of Perinatal / Neonatal Ethical Issues was held in May of 2005 in Colorado Springs to address some of these issues.

SEGMENT 4 - "A Matter of Language" (5:23) - How we view a situation can drastically change how we make decisions, and the language we use can affect our perspective. Doctors and nurses have to communicate complex and difficult issues to grieving families, who then have to make informed choices, often in a very short time span. How those questions are phrased and presented is very important.

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