In August 2023, the law known as the “Empty Arms Law” comes into effect in Colombia, whose main objective is to positively influence women's health, guaranteeing the full exercise of their sexual and reproductive rights, but mainly the right to mental health, rights that are supported by the provision of health services, as the sole responsible for the care of the vital processes of pregnancy, childbirth, postpartum, and breastfeeding, thus having the scope to include care in cases where women have suffered an event of death and gestational as well as neonatal bereavement.
This Law effectively impacts the standardization and establishment of objective criteria for intervention, approach, and accompaniment for parents whose child dies during gestation, from week 1 to week 40, or within the first 28 days of life, so that the greatest possible physical and mental well-being can be provided within the family environment.
For this reason, the Ministry of Health and Social Protection is imposed the obligation to create a comprehensive and humanized care pathway for women and their families facing this situation, applicable to the health sector, which will be responsible for providing care taking into account respect for human dignity, humanization of care, women's autonomy, privacy, equality, promotion and care of mental health, quality and professional competence, among other principles contemplated in the law.
The protocol implemented by the Ministry of Health must initially be mandatorily adopted by both public and private health service providers, thereby achieving: (i) improving the quality of health care, providing comprehensive support not only for physical health but also for mental health and the spiritual and social dimension of families, but more directed towards women facing the death of their children during gestation or in the neonatal stage; (ii) standardizing and guaranteeing equitable care for families and women grieving gestational and neonatal death, in the different health institutions of the country; (iii) minimizing the risk of psychological sequelae in families and women facing gestational and neonatal death, associated with the type of care received at the health institution at the time of death, thereby favoring an adequate elaboration of the grieving process; (iv) guaranteeing, at the time of health care, the effectiveness of the human, constitutional, and legal rights of families and women grieving gestational and neonatal death; (v) raising awareness and visibility among citizens and public and private organizations about the impact of gestational and neonatal death on families and women.
It is important to note that this Law was called “Empty Arms” because it is the description that pregnant women and their families who do not successfully complete their pregnancy or whose child dies in the first days of life, explain the feeling of pain and loneliness they suffer from this loss, which tends to worsen because it is an ignored situation, the little validation, and deficient care from the health system. That is why October 15 of each year was established as the “National Day of Awareness of Grief from Gestational or Perinatal Loss”.