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Perinatal palliative care: from fetal to neonatal life
  1. Angel Chimenea1,2,
  2. Lutgardo García-Díaz1,
  3. Araceli Ferrari3 and
  4. Guillermo Antiñolo Gil1,2
  1. 1Materno-Fetal Medicine, Genetics and Reproduction, Virgen del Rocio University Hospital, Sevilla, Spain
  2. 2Fetal, IVF and Reproduction Simulation Training Centre (FIRST), Seville, Spain
  3. 3Neonatology, Virgen del Rocio University Hospital, Sevilla, Spain
  1. Correspondence to Professor Guillermo Antiñolo Gil, Materno-Fetal Medicine, Genetics and Reproduction, Virgen del Rocio University Hospital, Sevilla 41013, Spain; gantinolo{at}us.es

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In 2002, the WHO defined palliative care as a concept focused on reducing pain and improving quality of life (QoL). With this definition, WHO sought to give greater importance to the patient who receives this care, considering them ‘more than patients’, as they require social support in addition to medical care.1

Perinatal palliative care aims to improve the QoL of neonatal patients without intent to prolong life in the context of a life-limiting fetal condition.2 This concept directly involves the parents from the moment of diagnosis of fetal disease.

Advances in ultrasound and fetal medicine in recent decades have improved prenatal diagnosis, including fetal conditions where the efficacy of interventions carried out at birth are ineffective, questionable or harmful to the neonate.2 Following diagnosis, all the therapeutic and follow-up …

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Footnotes

  • Contributors All authors contributed to the write-up of the letter and approved the final version for submission.

  • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

  • Competing interests None declared.

  • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; internally peer reviewed.