Patients Become the Parent: Child Life in Fetal Health Center

This session will include how child life specialists utilize fundamental skills to establish rapport with patients in the FHC by providing non-medical, emotional support. By establishing consistent and trusting relationships with families, child life specialists help decrease anxiety by offering a safe space for open discussion, validation of emotions, and guidance through complex hospital experiences. Unlike medical teams focused on clinical care, child life specialists assess the psychosocial well-being of families, helping them process difficult information and feel seen beyond their diagnosis. Child life specialists are trained to recognize the emotional needs of high-risk pregnancies, prolonged hospitalizations, and help normalize these feelings while offering coping strategies.

Child life specialists introduce interventions for patients to hospital resources such as caregiver events, art activities, and facility dog interventions. Additionally, therapeutic dog visits are led by child life specialists to bring moments of comfort, joy, and relaxation to reduce stress and promote positive mental health practices. These interventions encourage caregivers to take breaks, get out of bed, and engage with their environment in a meaningful way. Whether through distraction, normalization, or psychosocial support, child life specialists ensure caregivers feel supported, informed, and empowered throughout their journey, making a significant difference in their overall hospital experience.

Child life specialists provide bereavement support and facilitate memory making in the FHC by helping families create lasting keepsakes of their child's hand and footprints on charms, canvases and utilizing a 3D printer. These items help to honor and remember the baby in a personal and meaningful way.

Lastly, supporting siblings during challenging conversations, promoting emotional expression, and educational opportunities, are a pillar of child life in the FHC. From preparing siblings for what to anticipate, to diagnosis teaching, child life specialists collaborate with caregivers to create a safe and supportive environment to set siblings up for success.

Suggested Domain: Assessment, Intervention

Credits: 1.0 PDU

Please note: All webinar content and its certificate will expire on 10/27/29, regardless of when it is purchased, accessed, or completed. At that point, contents will no longer be available in any form, including as an archive or as a PDU certificate. It is the responsibility of the learner to complete the contents and download and save the certificate for their records prior to 10/27/29.