News

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Expand stillbirth education for GPs: RACGP

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The South Australian Government has accepted in principle all 22 recommendations of a major inquiry into stillbirth, including calls to expand education and training for GPs.
 
The Parliamentary inquiry was established last year to investigate best practice stillbirth education and awareness programs, models of care in pregnancy and for parents after stillbirth, and support and training for healthcare professionals.
 
It received 79 written submissions and testimony from 49 witnesses, including from RACGP SA.
 
The Select Committee into Stillbirth’s final recommendations include:
 

• the introduction of the ‘purple butterfly’ program, a symbol of pregnancy after loss, in hospital records to aid healthcare professionals in supporting parents
• a suite at Adelaide’s new Women’s and Children’s Hospital for parents delivering stillborn babies
• supporting the distribution of preventive materials to expectant parents, including those designed specifically for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and culturally and linguistically diverse families
• expanding education and training for healthcare professionals to better support parents through loss and subsequent pregnancies.

 
The Parliamentary Committee was established by SA MP Olivia Savvas, who was just four years old when her own brother Benjamin was stillborn 25 years ago.
 
‘I am incredibly proud that our Government is taking steps to increase those supports for families like my own,’ she said.
 
‘I have been forever shaped by the loss of my brother, and I know first-hand that the impact of infant loss is long lasting.’
 
More than eight in 1000 births in Australia are stillbirths. In 2022 there were 3076 neonatal deaths in Australia, with stillbirth accounting for 77% of these.
 
The RACGP’s submission, co-written and presented by RACGP SA Chair Dr Siân Goodson and lead medical advisor for the SA GP Obstetric Shared Care Program Dr Jenni Goold, outlined the many phases of antenatal and postnatal care that GPs are an ‘integral’ part of, including preconception care, collaborative care, and care for patients in rural and remote communities.
 
The RACGP recommended:
 

• improving alternative access to support to allow GPs to offer accessible antenatal care and enhance continuity of care
• the development of innovative solutions to support the integration of GPs into all models of care
• exploring funding opportunities to remunerate GPs to undertake training or upskilling and to further develop training programs in areas of perinatal mental health and bereavement support.

 
‘For every hour a GP is not consulting, they are not earning income, making funding to support the remuneration of GPs to undertake further training vital in not only enhancing skills, but in maintaining and building a stronger workforce in years to come,’ said Dr Goodson in the submission.
 
‘The RACGP has endorsed the CASaND guidelines, which highlight that comprehensive care in the context of a stillbirth should be both multifaceted and interdisciplinary, reinforcing the importance of shared care.’
 
Dr Goodson told newsGP presenting to the committee was a ‘very moving’ experience, with politicians from both sides of Parliament sharing their own personal experiences of stillbirth.
 
‘There were two men from the opposition who stood up and got very emotional, very choked up, talking about things that had happened within their families,’ she said.
 
‘It was really good to see male MPs allowing themselves to be vulnerable and share something emotional and heartfelt in that sort of arena. I don’t think we’d have seen that a while ago.
 
‘It actually adds real weight to the fact that everybody’s considering the mental health impacts of things like stillbirth now.
 
‘Fortunately, stillbirth is rare, and many GPs won’t have any patients who’ve experienced stillbirth … but raising awareness and ensuring GPs have the skills and knowledge to appropriately help their patients through times like that is really important.’
 
In response to the committee’s recommendations, the SA Government last week announced $850,000 in further funding to the Red Tree Foundation, which offers specialist counselling to families affected by the loss of an infant or child, including telehealth counselling for rural and regional areas.
 
Moving forward, Dr Goodson said while there are ‘a large number of GPs’ already in the SA Shared Care Program, she believes more would be interested in doing it if more funding was available.
 
‘We are very keen to see the [program] funding ongoing, and to be increased, because it’s great for GPs and for patients,' she said.

'It’s a very good program, so it would be good to see more of it.'
 
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antenatal care shared care South Australia stillbirth

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