How the Bereavement Ready readiness assessment works with Canadian guidance for pregnancy and infant loss care in labour and birth, postpartum, and neonatal units.
Canadian hospitals draw on several sources for bereavement care: the Public Health Agency of Canada's Family-Centred Maternity and Newborn Care guidelines, the Canadian Paediatric Society's position statement on perinatal loss, and provincial programs such as the PAIL Network in Ontario. In October 2025, the SOGC called for a national stillbirth strategy.
The guidance agrees on what families need. What varies is whether a unit has the structures to deliver it every time: named ownership, current policy, documented training, staff support, and a review cycle that leadership sees. That is what this assessment measures.
It is free, takes about fifteen minutes, and produces a Readiness Snapshot your team can bring to a quality or patient experience committee.
Recommendations from the PHAC guidelines (Chapter 7, Loss and grief) and the CPS position statement on perinatal loss, with the assessment questions that measure them. Item numbers refer to the 29 scored questions. CA numbers are the Canadian questions.
| Recommendation | Assessment questions | Match | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Parents choose how much time they spend with their baby, without a set limit.PHAC | 4.1, 5.1 | Full |
| 2 | Families are offered memory-making, such as photographs, handprints, and footprints, when welcomed.PHAC, CPS | 4.2 | Full |
| 3 | Staff ask how cultural, spiritual, or personal beliefs shape the family's preferences before acting.CPS, PHAC | 4.3 | Full |
| 4 | Care respects the beliefs, rituals, and ceremonies of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis families.PHAC | 4.3 + CA-2 | Canada question |
| 5 | Every family is offered a full postmortem examination, and results are reviewed with them.PHAC, CPS | CA-1 | Canada question |
| 6 | Discussions and decisions are documented and shared across the interdisciplinary team.PHAC | 6.1, 6.2 | Full |
| 7 | Immediate and long-term follow-up is available, with primary care notified promptly.PHAC, CPS | 6.3, 6.5 | Full |
| 8 | Parents receive anticipatory guidance on lactation after loss.CPS | 6.4 | Full |
| 9 | Families in isolated communities have follow-up coordinated with local providers.PHAC | 6.3 + CA-3 | Canada question |
| 10 | Birth, death, and stillbirth registration is completed as the law requires.CPS | CA-4 | Canada question |
| 11 | Subsequent pregnancies receive specialized support for anxiety and grief.PHAC | 6.5 | Full |
| 12 | Staff have debriefing, peer or mentor support, and counselling, and the same staff are not expected to care for every bereaved family.PHAC, CPS | 7.1 to 7.3 | Full |
The assessment also measures what the guidance assumes but does not spell out: documented leadership support (1.1), a named lead or committee (1.2), a current policy with a scheduled annual review (2.1 to 2.4), and documented training (3.1 to 3.4). These are what let good practice survive staff turnover.
The Canadian version of this assessment is mapped to the Public Health Agency of Canada's Family-Centred Maternity and Newborn Care: National Guidelines (Chapter 7, Loss and grief) and the Canadian Paediatric Society's position statement on perinatal loss, prepared by its Fetus and Newborn Committee.
The five Canadian questions also draw on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's health Calls to Action, the PAIL Network's work in Ontario, and provincial vital statistics rules.
Naming these organisations shows where the content comes from. None of them has reviewed or endorsed Bereavement Ready.
Choosing Canada adds five short questions at the end. Your answers appear in a separate Canada panel on your results, so a Canadian result can still be compared directly with any other unit.
Choosing Canada changes how the questions read, not what they measure. Every scored question keeps its number and its meaning. The assessment is available in English only at this time.
| Who is listed in the roles question | Nursing, midwifery, physicians, social work, spiritual care, support staff |
| NICU levels | Level I, II, III |
| Sites of care | Emergency department, labour and birth, NICU |
| Chaplaincy | Spiritual care |
| Shift change | Handover |
| Staff support | Employee and family assistance program |
| Spelling | Canadian English |
| US cost figures | Not shown. There is no verified Canadian equivalent. |
The published benchmark currently comes from participating units in the United States. Canadian results are shown beside it and clearly labelled, and a Canadian benchmark will be published once enough units have taken part that no single unit could be recognised.
Bereavement Ready is independent. It is not part of PHAC, the CPS, the SOGC, the PAIL Network, or any provincial ministry, and is not endorsed by them. The standards belong to the bodies that publish them. Bereavement Ready measures readiness against them.
Responses are anonymous. No hospital name is collected, and location is recorded at province or territory level only. See Privacy and Data Use.