The anatomy of compassion: courage, connection and safeness in perinatal practice

The new NHS England Three Year Delivery Plan for Maternity and Neonatal Services advocates for compassionate care for families and compassionate, psychologically safe workplace cultures for staff. In this article we propose the need for a shared language and understanding of what compassion is, how it works, why it can feel hard and why practising compassion is an act of courage. We aim here to share our understanding of compassionate approaches from using them clinically in our work in maternity, perinatal and neonatal services. We also give some suggestions for growing compassion across the system, both for leaders and systems as well as individuals.

Davy Evans
davy.evans@nhs.net

Ruth Butterworth
ruth.butterworth@alderhey.nhs.uk

On behalf of the Neonatal Leads for Psychological Practice in England’s Neonatal Operational Delivery Networks (see TABLE 1)

Evans D., Butterworth R., Atkins E., Chilvers R., Marsh A., Barr K., Cole S., Cordwell J., D’Urso A., Higgins S. The anatomy of compassion: courage, connection and safeness in perinatal practice. Infant 2023; 19(3): 88-92.

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Keywords

compassion; delivery plan; perinatal; motivation; courage; connection; safeness

Key points

Compassionate care and compassionate cultures are advocated for in recent key documents.
A full understanding of the nature of compassion is essential for bringing about compassionate culture in maternity and neonatal care.
Opening a discourse of ‘safeness’ in relationships as well as ‘safety’ in care will be key in achieving the ambitions of NHS England’s Three Year Delivery Plan.

Also published in Infant:

VOLUME 19 ISSUE 5/NOVEMBER 2023

The anatomy of compassion part 2: nurturing compassionate cultures of maternity and neonatal care

The NHS England Three Year Delivery Plan for Maternity and Neonatal Services¹ prioritises compassionate care for families and compassionate cultures for staff. In a previous article, we proposed a shared language and understanding of the complexities of practising compassion in this context and why it can feel hard to do.² In the following article, we outline what is required to take practical steps – at each level of the system – to foster compassionate care in maternity and neonatal services.