This site aims to provide support for parents confronted with the announcement of a serious and incurable illness for the child they are expecting or is new-born, which will bring about the death of the baby in a relatively short period. |
It proposes :
- help in considering these diagnoses as end of life situations,
- to accompany parents who are confronted with this situation during the pregnancy and who wish to continue their pregnancy,
- to accompany parents in the post-natal setting when the life of the infant is uncertained,
- and support for health professionals in order to set up this palliative care approach.
Faced with such a painful situation during pregnancy, the SPAMA association proposes to let people discover the possibility of accompanying the baby to his or her natural death, through the experience of numerous mothers, a termination not being the only possibility. If this approach seems difficult to carry out at first, experience has shown that it brings about another outlook on life, on the child and can help to build the mourning to come. In many ways, it consists in a palliative care approach.
The existence of a lethal illness for the child to be born does not imply a vital risk for the mother: a termination is therefore not obligatory.
A child with a malformation or lethal chromosome anomaly does not suffer in the mothers’ womb: it is therefore possible to decide to accompany the expected child to his or her natural death.
In a post-natal setting, a new born baby might find himself involved in an end of life situation, due to his extreme prematurity or any impredictible situation. Methods derived from hospice care may be implemented to great benefit in such cases.
The SPAMA association, which regroups health professionals and parents who have lived through this situation, is there to help families
by bringing them support and a listening ear.
