Handbook of Perinatal and Neonatal Palliative Care: A Guide for Nurses, Physicians, and Other Health Professionals

This is a book whose time has come. We are nurses who have seen poor decisions made at the bedside when an infant or child should have been allowed to die with dignity and love and instead received interventions that caused suffering and heartache. We have said, “I cannot do it. I cannot resuscitate this child one more time.” We understood what a family's life would be like, but they did not, or could not. We are caregivers to children readmitted over and over, whose parents, upon giving birth to a baby with a life-limiting condition, were not given an option of palliative care. We have criedwith parents and physician colleagues. We have held children in our arms whose parents stopped coming. We now have assistance. For any reader who will care for an infant or child at the time of death, or will send a child home with hospice, a new handbook exists that will be a guiding source for years to come.