The National Center, in collaboration with many FIMR programs and partners, have developed many resources to support the work of FIMR teams.  These documents are presented here in PDF format here but Word versions are available for customization by your program.  If you would like the Word version, please use the “Contact Us” page and send a request telling us which document(s) you would like. If there is a tool or resource that you are interested in that is not listed, please send us your suggestions.

On October 13, 2021, the Center hosted an all-teams FIMR Meet Up.  The following three videos were part of the half-day virtual meeting:

Breaking Cultural Barriers in Maternal Mental Health (passcode NCFRP)
Powerful Stories, Purposeful Storytelling (passcode NCFRP)
Using FIMR Data to understand and respond to disparities (passcode NCFRP)

  • FIMR Case Report Form version 6.0 (PDF)
  • Data Dictionary 6.0 (PDF)
  • National Center FIMR Brochure (PDF)
  • FIMR Data Abstraction Book* (PDF)

*Developed by ACOG’s FIMR support, during a collaborative effort between the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB), Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).

  • Tips for FIMR Teams: Identifying bias, discrimination, and racism in medical and social service record review (PDF)
  • Planning for a New Fetal Infant Mortality Review Team (PDF)
  • Agenda for First FIMR Planning Meeting (PDF)
  • Review Team Confidentiality Agreement (PDF)
  • Setting Policies and Procedures (PDF)
  • Template for a FIMR Policy and Procedure Operating Guide (PDF)
  • Building and Maintaining your CRT and CAT (PDF)
  • Sample Consent for Parental Interview (PDF)
  • Sample Consent for Parental Interview – Spanish (PDF)
  • FIMR Overview for Developing Teams (PDF)
  • Orientation for New Case Review Team (CRT) members (PDF)
  • Sample Recruitment Letter for CRT member (PDF)
  • Sample Confidentiality Team Sign In Sheet (PDF)
  • FIMR Manual* (PDF)
  • Parental Interview Guidance (PDF)
  • Overview for New Case Review Team (CRT) and/or Community Action Team (CA) Members (PDF)
  • Position Descriptions for Project Director, Project Coordinator, Medical Record Abstractor and Parental Interviewer (PDF)
  • Position Description for FIMR Director (PDF)
  • Role of the FIMR Coordinator (PDF)
  • Role of the Case Review Team Member (PDF)
  • Role of the Community Review Team Member (PDF)
  • Role of the Community Action Team (CAT) (PDF)
  • FIMR Confidentiality Concerns (PDF)
  • The HIPAA Privacy Rule and FIMR (PDF)
  • Template for a FIMR team charter (PDF) (Word)
  • Parental interview Sample Protocol for Contacting Families (PDF)
  • The FIMR Evaluation: Objectives, Concepts, Frameworks, and Methods (PDF)
  • The Nationwide Evaluation of Fetal and Infant Mortality Review (FIMR) Programs (PDF)
  • Evaluation Supplement (PDF)

*Developed by ACOG’s FIMR support, during a collaborative effort between the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB), Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).

  • Guidelines for Writing Effective Recommendations (PDF)
  • Sample Standard Recommendations Related to Prematurity (PDF)
  • Sample Action Log (PDF)
  • Sample Recommendations and Action (PDF)
  • Summary of CRT Deliberations (PDF)
  • SMARTIE Goals Work Sheet (Word)
  • Prevention Matrix (PDF)
  • The Spectrum of Prevention (PDF)
FIMR Strategic Storytelling Project

For over two decades, Fetal and Infant Mortality Review (FIMR) – a community-based, data-driven, action-oriented process aimed at improving services, systems, and resources for women, infants, and families – has been used across the United States for the prevention of fetal and infant deaths. The FIMR process brings together a multidisciplinary community team to examine local fetal and infant deaths, discover together how such events may have been prevented, and make recommendations for clinical and community level changes.

Unique to the FIMR process is the inclusion of ‘parental/family interviews’ – personal narratives bereaved mothers share to provide uniquely insightful information about their experiences before, during, and after the death of their babies. Confidential information gathered from interviews are considered by the community team in the aggregate as part of their deliberations. The FIMR Stories Project explores how adding strategic individual storytelling to FIMR practices and processes may render greater impact for systems change.

Click here for an informational webinar on Storytelling at https://vimeo.com/778267264 (passcode NCFRP).

Why stories?

Stories can help humanize and heal, deepen understanding and motivate action, and catalyze greater impact for systems change. Strategic storytelling may help change the narrative about factors and forces leading to fetal and infant deaths, and how to reach more first birthdays. Stories can lift up circumstances and outcomes not limited to any one situation, which combined, reflect a larger pattern. Storytelling may help individuals and families experiencing loss discover their own stories and shape their own narratives.

Honoring Lived Experiences.

This initiative invites parents and families who have experienced loss, and people involved in the work of fatality review and prevention, to know and tell their own stories, then complement standard FIMR data collection approaches with strategic storytelling. We are exploring how to welcome, hear, and elevate the lived experiences of mothers, fathers, birthing people, and families in new ways.

Addressing Health Equity.

Stories can illustrate and illuminate how racism – past and present – manifests: as discrimination, implicit bias, and unequal treatment in health care access and delivery; biologically, as cumulative trauma and toxic stress; and over time, as chronic community stressors – including wealth inequity, housing instability, food insecurity, environmental toxins, disinvestment, and economic discrimination. Through strategic storytelling, the influence and impact of racial inequities on health outcomes, across generations, may be better heard, understood, elevated, and acted upon.

Goals

This exploratory scope of work aims to adapt, apply and integrate the science and best practices of Storytelling to strengthen current FIMR approaches to combining data and community engagement to improve prevention of fetal and infant deaths.

  1. Augment local storytelling capacity and strategic use of stories to help FIMR teams shift current conversations about recommended solutions from personal responsibility and individual behaviors toward upstream services and systems improvements.
  2. Invite and welcoming further the voices of mothers, fathers and families who have experienced losses, through strategic storytelling so enable FIMR teams to understand and honor their lived experiences.
  3. Elevating FIMR stories to kindle greater commitments among teams and partners to champion health and racial equity in their communities.
A Design Team, comprised of partners and content experts in maternal child health, FIMR, and storytelling, helped to shape the learning collaborative’s strategy and provided ongoing recommendations for incorporating storytelling practices into FIMR.  The Design Team was charged with this set of tasks:

  • to advise on strategies for strengthening FIMR teams’ abilities to use strategic storytelling to augment the death review process.
  • to inform the design and implementation of a pilot program, to orient and train selected FIMR Teams on harnessing the power of stories for social change, with focus on improving perinatal outcomes; and
  • to assist in the evaluation of the pilot and make recommendations for continued investments in strategic storytelling strategies to enhance FIMR.

Design Team Members