Minerva

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The proportion of parents being asked to consent to postmortem examinations after a stillbirth is rising, but fewer examinations are being performed. A survey of healthcare professionals and parents found that emotional distress was a common barrier to discussing postmortem examinations with parents, and parents judged the long wait for results as a barrier to giving consent (BJOG 2012, doi:10.1111/j.1471-0528.2012.03357.x). A third of parents later regretted not agreeing to a post mortem; of those who consented, one in six regretted their decision.

Twenty one years after the original randomised clinical trial of interferon beta …