Act 346, the Perinatal Bereavement Care Initiative, was signed June 1, 2026 and took effect August 1, 2026. It reaches every Louisiana hospital providing maternity or neonatal services and it names three areas. This page covers what the training and family-services areas ask a facility to be able to show.
Angel's Law directs Louisiana hospitals providing maternity or neonatal services toward comprehensive bereavement care in three areas. Each is a real requirement. They differ in how a facility demonstrates it: one through procurement, two through documented program structure.
Perinatal cooling devices that give families more time with their baby. This is a procurement decision with an established vendor market, and it is demonstrated by the equipment being present and in service.
Bereavement Ready sells no devices and recommends no brands. We can tell you what functional requirements to write into a specification. We will not tell you whose to buy.
Training for hospital personnel supporting families after intrauterine fetal demise, neonatal death, or stillbirth. This means a documented education plan, trauma-informed communication competency, orientation content for new hires, and completion records you can produce on request.
Domain 03 of the readiness framework, four items.
Assistance connecting families with grief counseling and support groups. This means a defined referral pathway, discharge guidance, a follow-up contact window, and continuity through anniversaries and subsequent pregnancies.
Domain 06 of the readiness framework, five items.
Equipment is demonstrated by being present. Training and referral pathways are demonstrated by records: completion logs by unit and role, a written referral pathway, discharge guidance, and a defined follow-up window. Those records either exist or they do not, and building them takes longer than a purchase order. Facilities that start now will have a full year of documentation behind them.
A cooling device is visible, purchasable, and easy to point to. Training records and referral pathways are neither. If your facility is asked to describe its Angel's Law position and the honest answer is a device in a supply room, the gap is not a product gap. It is a documentation and program gap, and it is the part no vendor can sell you.
The readiness self-assessment covers 29 items across eight domains, including every area Angel's Law touches. It is free, it takes a few minutes, and your responses are anonymous unless you choose otherwise. You receive your domain scores on screen immediately.
| Angel's Law area | Framework domain | What you will be able to show |
|---|---|---|
| Staff training | 03. Education & Training | A written education plan, communication competency content, orientation materials, and completion records by unit and role |
| Connecting families to services | 06. Documentation & Continuity | Discharge guidance, a defined follow-up window, a referral pathway, and anniversary and subsequent-pregnancy protocols |
| Comprehensive care generally | 02. Policies & Standards | A current adopted policy covering all gestations with defined roles and an annual review record |
| Institutional accountability | 01. Leadership & Infrastructure | A named owner, documented leadership support, and escalation pathways covering nights and weekends |
Read the full text of Act 346 at the Louisiana Legislature. This page is a summary and is not legal advice.
Bereavement Ready does not manufacture, sell, resell, distribute, or receive commission on any device or product. We have no financial interest in what your facility purchases. Our work is institutional structure, policy, competency, and workflow, which is the part of Angel's Law that is demonstrated through documentation rather than equipment.
That independence is not a marketing position. It is the reason a facility can put our documentation in front of a regulator, a board, or a family without a conflict-of-interest question attached to it. Read our independence commitment.