To ask the Minister of Health to detail the strategic policy to address the number of miscarriages that take place annually; and what consultation her Department, or Health and Social Care Trusts, have had with women that have miscarried.

My Department’s Maternity Strategy, ‘A Strategy for Maternity Care in Northern Ireland 2012 – 2018’, sets out the strategic direction for all maternity care in the North of Ireland. Patient representative groups were fully consulted during the development of the strategy. With regard to my Department’s policy on miscarriage: in implementing the Maternity Strategy, the Public Health Agency has developed a commissioning intention and referral pathway, based on NICE guidance, which specifies the approach to development of Early Pregnancy Assessment Services (EPAS) throughout the North of Ireland.

My Department’s regional bereavement guidance (Regional bereavement guidance on evidence-based, holistic care of parents and their families after the experience of miscarriage, stillbirth or neonatal death) has been recently updated and is available on the Department’s website: https://www.health-ni.gov.uk/articles/bereavement-guidance-after-experience-miscarriage-stillbirth-or-neonatal-death

It is not possible to provide specific funding information for bereavement services for women, and their families, following miscarriage as support will be provided by midwives, nurses and doctors in Maternity or Gynae wards who are part of the core maternity and gynae service teams in Health and Social Care Trusts. There are five Bereavement Co-ordinators located across the North. The Belfast and South Eastern Trusts also provide dedicated bereavement midwife support to women and their families.