Summary of the best evidence on grief counselling for women with foetal loss

Objective: To retrieve, evaluate and summarise the best evidence on grief counselling for women with fetal loss. Methods: A systematic search of the literature on grief counselling for women with fetal loss was conducted in domestic and international databases such as Up To Date, BMJ Best Practice, JBI Centre for Evidence-Based Health Care database, Cochrane Library, PubMed, Embase, China Knowledge, Wanfang, guideline networks, and professional societies, and the types of literature included clinical decision-making , guidelines, expert consensus, systematic evaluation, evidence summary, and best practice. The search period was from the creation of the database until 31 July 2024. Results: A total of nine documents were included, including two guidelines, one evidence summary, two expert consensus, two clinical decision-making, one system evaluation, and one best practice. Seventeen pieces of best evidence were summarised in 6 key areas including multidisciplinary team formation, assessment, timing of grief counselling, grief counselling before termination, grief counselling at the time of performing the termination, and grief counselling after termination. Conclusion: This study summarises the best evidence on grief counselling for women with foetal loss and suggests that healthcare professionals should carefully select and apply the evidence, taking into account the domestic clinical context, while respecting the cultural background and personal wishes of the bereaved parents.