Alan Grincell
PhD Researcher · NCAD DesignLabs Health
Design-Led · Perinatal Bereavement Care
Designing for
compassionate
bereavement care.
Exploring how design can help strengthen compassionate care following the loss of a baby.
A design-led exploration of the policies, services and products that shape perinatal bereavement care in Ireland.
Bringing together lived experience and professional insight to inform meaningful, compassionate improvements in care.
Team Members
Jamie Lane
Position / Role
Alex Smith
Position / Role
Charlie McMann
Position / Role
Max Johnson
Position / Role
VOICES OF SUPPORT
A shared commitment to better care.
This research explores how design can help strengthen compassionate care following the loss of a baby.
Bringing together bereaved parents, healthcare professionals, charities and community groups, the study examines the policies, services, cooling products and care-related rituals that shape experiences of perinatal bereavement care in Ireland.
Using a design-led and collaborative approach, the research maps how these different parts of the care system connect, where challenges and opportunities exist, and how lived experience can inform meaningful improvement.
The insights developed through the research will contribute to the co-design of an improved cooling product system, while also generating wider learning for the design and delivery of compassionate bereavement care.
The work is collaborative, ethically sensitive and grounded in lived experience.
This project matters because having standards is only one part of good bereavement care. The real challenge is how those standards are carried through in practice, across different hospitals, staff roles, services and equipment.
By looking closely at what actually happens on the ground, this research can help identify practical improvements in policy, care pathways and products such as the CuddleCot.
Research Participant (Clinical Midwife Specialist)
This proejct research will gather the lived experience of Clinical Midwife Specialists, bereaved parents and other professionals to identify practical improvements in policy, service pathways and essential equipment such as the cuddle cot cooling systems.
Marie Cregan (Founder & Chief Executive, Féileacáin)
The design-led approach tot his research offers a structured yet creative means to surface those frontline insights and translate them into actionable improvements in policy, service pathways, and equipment design.
Rióna Cotter (Assistant Director of Midwifery, NWIHP)
