Name: Chakrapani Vasudevan

Organisation: Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Award Category: Outstanding Team Care

Sponsored By:

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My Plea:

The Bradford Butterfly Pathway

Hearing the news that your baby has a life-limiting condition and is likely to die young is devastating. Our families must come to terms with the fact that their child will die before them, and can struggle to cope during an incredibly challenging time.

Parents and family members often need extra support as daily life changes for ever, and this is where the Bradford Butterfly Pathway comes in. Since its launch three years ago, the pathway has provided care and support to more than 45 families and allowed them to make the most of the short time they and their children have left together – often at home.

Launched by Consultant Neonatologist Dr Chakra Vasudevan from Bradford Teaching Hospitals with members of the Trust’s perinatal teams and colleagues from West Yorkshire’s Forget Me Not Children’s Hospice, the pathway helps health professionals deliver the best-possible perinatal palliative care.

Although it is run on limited resources, the pathway has had a huge impact.

Recent feedback from our parents includes:

“I dread to think of the emotions I would have had to go through on my own. The Bradford Butterfly Pathway means I have people I can turn to, experts who have experienced my case many times over. I know I can get through my journey with them by my side.”

“I felt I was not alone. I was reassured that my baby’s life was in fact all the more valuable for the shortness of it and that Dr Chakra and his team would do everything possible to help her – either with or without medical intervention.”

“Involving parents helps you look past the guidelines and statistics and just see a Mum and Dad and the real feelings that we have.”

“The circumstances cannot be changed. I will have to go through this experience whether I like it or not. The difference is having people who know how to support me through the process and get me to the other end in one piece.”

“I will never forget the care and love you gave to us all and how you allowed us to take our baby home.”

Dr Chakra said: “The Butterfly Pathway helps families avoid painful and intrusive intensive care and spend time with their babies and siblings, making memories and caring for their child at home. It also helps them understand the implications of diagnosis and deal with grief and loss.

“Families on the pathway are offered support, choices and a care plan from a multi-disciplinary team comprising of a neonatologist, midwife, geneticists, obstetricians and the perinatal palliative care team based at West Yorkshire’s Forget Me Not hospice. This helps them make informed choices about their labour and provide the right care for their baby immediately after birth.

“It’s vital that we value every life equally, and the pathway plays a vital role in allowing families to treasure their children.

Specialist Midwife Vicky Jones added: “The Butterfly Pathway works because it brings together a multi-disciplinary team to care and support families. That’s what makes it special. We can’t change the diagnosis but we all work exceptionally hard to make sure we get the environment right for families so that they can make the most of their time together.”

Staff from our Women’s and Newborn Unit took part in a sponsored dragon boat race to help pay for the conversion of a former office into a Butterfly Pathway family room, which has been painted in soothing colours, decorated with soft furnishings, pictures and furniture, and stocked with toys and educational material.

The room will be used to provide a private space for families, allowing them to meet healthcare professionals away from our busy antenatal clinic rooms.

There is little in life more difficult than coming to terms with losing a child to a life-limiting condition. The Bradford Butterfly Pathway aims to ensure families are not alone on that journey.

In the words of one of the mothers: “The Bradford Butterfly Pathway is invaluable to women in my situation in ways that are hard to express. I champion the cause and commend those who thought of it. Winning this award will help the project to continue supporting those women and families out there that desperately need help and don’t know where to turn.”

“We would now like other professionals across the country to hear more about the programme and see what can be achieved with limited resources.”

What Others Have Said

Chakra is a Consultant Neonatologist who co-ordinates a team including Consultant Obstetricians, Sonographers, Screening Midwife and Bereavement Midwife alongside the local Forget-Me-Not hospice team, to provide support and care for women and families who receive an antenatal diagnosis of a baby with a lethal anomaly, who decide to continue the pregnancy. The team work together to provide continuity during the antenatal and post natal period, extending to the intrapartum period where possible.