Health minister blasts miscarriage care at hospitals

EVERY hospital in NSW has been ordered to treat women who lose children in pregnancy with greater compassion in an unprecedented directive issued by Health Minister Brad Hazzard.

EVERY hospital in NSW has been ordered to treat women who lose children in pregnancy with greater compassion in an unprecedented directive issued by Health Minister Brad Hazzard.

Mr Hazzard has written to public and private hospitals demanding staff provide quality care sensitive to women’s circumstances, noting that the “emotional and psychological impact (of pregnancy loss) can be profound and long-lasting”.

Mr Hazzard was responding to the poor treatment of Stella Pirko and Anthony Meyers, whose baby Krystal was born at 28 weeks and did not survive. Picture: Channel 9 News

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard has written to hospital urging them to treat women who have had miscarriages with more care and compassion. Picture: AAP Image/Daniel Munoz

In Australia, one in 120 births is a stillbirth or a newborn death, and up to one in four confirmed pregnancies ends in miscarriage before 20 weeks.

“It is essential that all women and their families who experience pregnancy loss are provided with quality care, information and appropriate psychological support,” Mr Hazzard said.

“It is important that their care is sensitive to their circumstances for them to get the support they need to help cope with their loss.”

The powerful edict comes after Mr Hazzard learned of the harrowing story of Stella Pirko, 25, who said she was “tortured” by Liverpool Hospital, where her daughter Kyrstal Rose Meyers was stillborn last year.

Mr Hazzard has urged hospitals to respond with more compassion to miscarriages.

Krystal Rose was left in the hospital morgue for several days and mistakenly cremated before an autopsy could be carried out to determine if the cause of her death was genetic.

Ms Pirko was put in a ward alongside mums and newborn babies while grieving the loss of her child.

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She also said she was not offered adequate pain relief and was injured during the labour.

“I feel because my baby wasn’t alive they didn’t care about me or her,” she said.

“I wasn’t cared for and they weren’t professional.”

Mr Hazzard said that unfortunately Ms Pirko’s experience was not a one-off.

“All of us in the health area should be constantly ­reminded that care and ­compassion should be driving us all,” he said.