Expansion and enhancement of the IMproving Perinatal Mortality Review and Outcomes Via Education (IMPROVE) national education program

The IMPROVE workshops and eLearning module are designed to address the educational needs of health professionals involved in maternity and newborn care in managing perinatal death. The content in this education program is based on the Stillbirth CRE and PSANZ Care Around Stillbirth and Neonatal Death Clinical Practice Guideline (CASaND). The IMPROVE education program covers appropriate practices around principles of bereavement care, communicating with parents about autopsy, clinical examination, placental and post-mortem examination, investigation, classification, and audit of stillbirth.

This research project aims to expand the IMPROVE program to support and sustain evidence-based care and address care inequities in maternity settings across Australia. Specifically, this expansion will align content with the 2024 update of the CASaND Clinical Practice Guideline and incorporate other training priorities identified by health care professionals and parents for perinatal bereavement care, including alignment of the existing parent version of the Guideline: ‘Guiding Conversations’. We will also co-design and add training and education components for:

• cultural safety and inclusiveness for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families, and families from migrant and/or refugee backgrounds;
• early pregnancy loss and miscarriage;
• care in subsequent pregnancies; perinatal palliative care; and
• supporting the wellbeing of health care providers.

The current IMPROVE program eLearning modules are available here or find out more about the face-to-face workshops here.