The term “different news” is to describe the process of imparting and receiving sad, bad or difficult information relating to a foetus or neonate. Being told different news is a life changing event for parents – potentially triggering perinatal mental illness and more. How parents are told is critical, as it can determine how they cope and adjust in response to the news. The delivery of different news is a necessary part of healthcare practice. Many practitioners receive little formal training on how to tell parents different news. To improve the delivery of different news, we conducted research to develop a training programme for healthcare professionals.
This research was conducted over two phases. For the first phase, we collected the experiences of parents who received different news relating to their child. Together with healthcare professionals’ experiences of delivering this news to parents. These experiences were used to inform the training programme to improve the delivery of different news.
This research was funded by Public Health England Kent, Surrey and Sussex.
The University of Kent sponsored the study.
