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	Parents whose child has died during pregnancy or before reaching full term are set to benefit from crucial new national standards in the wake of a series of scandals in the system.</p>
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	Health Minister Simon Harris and HSE director general Tony O&rsquo;Brien will launch the new &ldquo;standards for bereavement care following pregnancy loss and perinatal death&rdquo; at an event this morning in a bid to address a lack of uniformity in how families affected by the personal tragedies are treated by hospitals.</p>
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	Under the current system, hospitals provide varying degrees of bereavement counselling to an estimated 14,500 grieving parents who have suffered a stillbirth or seen their child days moments after pregnancy.</p>
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	However, under the new initiative, national standards will be introduced to ensure all parents affected get identical care including those who have been affected by a fatal foetal abnormality or who have travelled abroad for an abortion. The new standards have been devised in the wake of pregnancy tragedies, including last year&rsquo;s Portlaoise Hospital crisis and the case taken by Amanda Mellet to the UN committee on human rights.</p>
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	In the Portlaoise, Co Laois, cases a number of women complained of how they were treated after losing a baby, including one woman who was handed her child&rsquo;s remains in a shoebox.</p>
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	The Mellet case involved a woman who travelled to Britain to terminate her pregnancy due to a fatal foetal abnormality. After returning to Ireland, Ms Mellet sought bereavement counselling from the Rotunda Hospital but was refused. A UN report found the Irish woman had been subjected to discriminatory, cruel, and degrading treatment.</p>
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	(Published by the Irish Examiner on the 10th August 2016)</p>
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	<a href="http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/bereaved-parents-to-benefit-from-new-care-standards-415024.html">http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/bereaved-parents-to-benefit-from-new-care-standards-415024.html</a></p>
