Sponsored by:
Assemblywoman PAMELA R. LAMPITT
District 6 (Burlington and Camden)
Assemblyman DANIEL R. BENSON
District 14 (Mercer and Middlesex)
Assemblywoman VALERIE VAINIERI HUTTLE
District 37 (Bergen)
SYNOPSIS
Establishes Stillbirth Resource Center and programs for the prevention and reduction of incidences of stillbirth; expands list of professionals authorized to provide stillbirth-related care ; appropriates $2.5 million.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act establishing the Stillbirth Resource Center, amending P.L.2013, c.217, supplementing Title 26 of the Revised Statutes, and making an appropriation.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. Section 1 of P.L.2013, c.217 (C.26:8-40.27) is amended to read as follows:
1. The Legislature finds and declares that:
a. Stillbirths are unintended fetal deaths and are traditionally identified as those which occur after 20 completed weeks of pregnancy, excluding induced terminations of pregnancies occurring after 20 weeks, or involve the unintended death of fetuses weighing 350 or more grams when no prenatal obstetric dating is available;
b. Stillbirths are not rare and are one of the most common adverse pregnancy outcomes experienced by pregnant women. [Approximately] Every year, roughly 25,000 babies are stillborn in the United States, and approximately one in every 160 pregnancies in the United States ends in stillbirth each year, a rate which is high compared with other developed countries;
c. As with most adverse health outcomes, there are longstanding and persistent racial, ethnic, age, and educational disparities for stillbirth in New Jersey. Statewide, African American women experience stillbirth at more than three times the rate of Caucasian women, and at more than twice the rate of other racial and ethnic groups;
d. Many factors, including genetics, environment, stress, social issues, access to and quality of medical care, and behavior, contribute to racial disparities in stillbirth. Research on stillbirth has not been afforded the same attention as other areas of medical research. As a result, the reasons for racial disparities in, and the causes of, stillbirth remain unknown;
e. Stillbirth is a traumatic event and its impact on families, who
often need counseling and other support services after experiencing
a stillbirth, has not be adequately researched;
[c.] f. Families experiencing a stillbirth suffer severe anguish, and many health care facilities in the State do not adequately ensure that grieving families are treated with sensitivity and are informed about what to expect when a stillbirth occurs, nor are families who have experienced a stillbirth always advised of the importance of an autopsy and thorough evaluation of the stillborn [child] baby ;
[d.] g. While studies have
identified many factors that may cause stillbirths, researchers still do not
know the causes of a
majority of stillbirths, in part due to a lack of uniform protocols for evaluating and classifying stillbirths, and to decreasing autopsy rates;
[e.] h. The State currently collects some data related to fetal deaths, but full autopsy and laboratory data related to stillbirths could be more consistently collected and more effectively used to better understand the risk factors and causes of stillbirths, and thus more effectively inform strategies for their prevention; and
[f.] i. It is in the public interest to establish mandatory protocols for health care facilities in the State, so that each [child] baby who is stillborn and each family experiencing a stillbirth in the State is treated with dignity, each family experiencing a stillbirth receives appropriate follow-up care provided in a sensitive manner, and comprehensive data related to stillbirths are consistently collected by the State and made available to researchers seeking to prevent and reduce the incidence of stillbirths. It is also in the public interest to establish a Stillbirth Resource Center, in collaboration with the Department of Health, to educate the public and health care professionals about stillbirths, to promote research on treatments options to eliminate the preventable causes of stillbirth, and provide supportive services to families experiencing a stillbirth.
(cf: P.L.2013, c.217, s.1)
2. Section 2 of P.L.2013, c.217 (C.26:8-40.28) is amended to read as follows:
2. a. The Commissioner of Health, in consultation with the State Board of Medical Examiners, the New Jersey Board of Nursing, the State Board of Psychological Examiners, and the State Board of Social Work Examiners, shall develop and prescribe by regulation comprehensive policies and procedures to be followed by health care facilities that provide birthing and newborn care services in the State when a stillbirth occurs.
b. The Commissioner of Health shall require as a condition of licensure that each health care facility in the State that provides birthing and newborn care services adhere to the policies and procedures prescribed in this section. The policies and procedures shall include, at a minimum:
(1) protocols for assigning primary responsibility to one physician or certified nurse midwife, per shift, who shall communicate the condition of the fetus to the mother and family, and inform and coordinate staff to assist with labor, delivery, postpartum, and postmortem procedures; provided that primary responsibility may be transferred to another licensed or certified health care professional, if the transfer is necessary to ensure that labor, delivery, postpartum, and postmortem care services are provided to the mother and family in a timely and compassionate manner;
(2) guidelines to assess a family's level of awareness and knowledge regarding the stillbirth;
(3) the establishment of a bereavement checklist, and an informational pamphlet to be given to a family experiencing a stillbirth that includes information about funeral and cremation options;
(4) provision of one-on-one nursing care for the duration of the mother's stay at the facility;
(5) training of physicians, nurses, psychologists, and social workers to ensure that information is provided to the mother and family experiencing a stillbirth in a sensitive manner, including information about what to expect, the availability of grief counseling, the opportunity to develop a plan of care that meets the family's social, religious, and cultural needs, and the importance of an autopsy and thorough evaluation of the stillborn [child] baby;
(6) best practices to provide psychological and emotional support to the mother and family following a stillbirth, including referring to the stillborn [child] baby by name, and offering the family the opportunity to cut the umbilical cord, hold the stillborn [child] baby with privacy and without time restrictions, and prepare a memory box with keepsakes, such as a handprint, footprint,