NURS 3334 Lecture Notes - Lecture 20: Tightrope Walking, Attachment Theory, Decision-Making
Document Summary
Perinatal loss: defined as: death of a fetus or infant from the time of conception through end of newborn period, first 28 days of life. Compounding tragedy are: misconceptions about perinatal loss, lack of healthcare grief education, use of outdated clinical interventions, sometimes unknown hardest for parents, physiologic maladaptations, common causes of perinatal loss, asphyxia, congenital malformations, superimposed pregnancy complications. Clinical therapy: diagnosis confirmed by ultrasound of fetal heart, mother reports low fetal movement or (cid:498)i haven"t felt my baby move since yesterday(cid:499, options available to parents: Induction of labor immediately or delaying until parents are ready: usually vaginally to avoid risk of dic. Postbirth evaluation: can help with closure for parents, fetal, blood tests, x rays, autopsy, placental studies (cultures, chromosomal studies, maybe a heart defect you didn"t detect earlier, maternal. Infectious disease: diabetes, thyroid abnormalities, lupus, kleihauer-betke test, urine toxicology testing.
