When given a serious or life-limiting medical diagnosis during the early stages of a pregnancy, parents are given minimal options. Unfortunately, most women and their families are not aware of the compassionate care available to them through perinatal hospice services.

Perinatal Hospice Services

Perinatal hospice is an innovative and compassionate model of support for parents and their child who find out during pregnancy that the child has a life-limiting condition. This support for the mother, baby and their family begins at the time of diagnosis, through the birthing process and the postpartum period.

As prenatal testing becomes increasingly routine and diagnostic methods have improved significantly over the last few decades, more fetal anomalies are being detected at an early stage in pregnancy. Just as the prevalence of prenatal diagnosis increase, so should the information available to parents.

Compassion and Care for Medically Challenging Pregnancies Act

The purpose of LB506, “The Compassion and Care for Medically Challenging Pregnancies Act,” is to raise awareness on perinatal hospice care and provide readily available information to help women and families through one of life’s most difficult stages.

Parents choose perinatal hospice care for a wide range of life-limiting conditions including anencephaly, Trisomy 13, Trisomy 18, Potter’s Syndrome, severe heart defects, congenital diaphragmatic hernia, and others.

These types of pregnancies, however, don’t just affect one person. They have a profound impact on entire families. Nebraska should be on the front end of providing information to women and families on this innovative and increasingly important model of care.

Women Deserve to Know About Perinatal Hospice

There is training, resources, and support services available to any parent regardless of location, because perinatal hospice is not a place. It is a model of care, an extra layer of support that can easily be incorporated into standard pregnancy and birth care.

Women and families deserve to know about the exceptional care and support services that are already available to them and their child. After receiving the most devastating news any parent can receive, no woman should feel hopeless and alone, especially when there are unique and innovative services designed to meet their physical and emotional needs.

Every moment a family spends with their baby is precious, and perinatal hospice is designed to maximize time and comfort while meeting the physical and emotional needs of the family.

The Compassion and Care for Medically Challenging Pregnancies Act is a simple bill that will make a world of difference by ensuring every parent knows all of their options and can receive the support and care they deserve.

Nate Grasz

Nate Grasz

Policy Director
Nate is the Policy Director at Nebraska Family Alliance and host of the Capitol Report program.