The growing need for compassionate bereavement education for all involved in caring for women
and their families has been highlighted in recent studies (Heazell et al. 2016, O’Connell et al.
2016, Burden et al. 2016). Staff have identified training and education as key priorities for them
in caring for bereaved families (McNamara et al. 2017, O’Connell et al. 2016; Gandino et al. 2017;
Agwu Kalu et al, 2018; Doherty et al, 2018a, b). The groundwork for this paper was based upon
the Report of the Work-stream on Education and Staff Support under the Chair of Prof. Mary
Higgins and presented at the Bereavement Forum, April 2018. This work-stream collated data on
the current curriculum on perinatal bereavement education at five out of the six Higher
Education Institutions offering bereavement education delivered to medical and midwifery
students in Ireland.