Your maternity support team can discuss the options available for a perinatal post-mortem examination. If you consent to a perinatal post-mortem, your maternity support team will complete the referral process on your behalf, once you have signed the perinatal post-mortem consent form. When organising perinatal post-mortems, our service providers will always endeavour to provide a date and time that suits the needs of the whānau. 

Referral boundaries for the Service are not fixed and to ensure a streamlined, consistent service each hospital provides back up and support as required. In general, referrals to the Service are as follows:

• Te Whatu Ora Te Toka Tumai Auckland, provided through Auckland Hospital: Te Tai Tokerau Northland, Te Toka Tumai Auckland, Counties Manukau, Waitematā, Waikato, Hauora a Toi Bay of Plenty, Tairāwhiti, Lakes, and Taranaki Districts.
• Capital, Coast and Hutt Valley, provided through Wellington Hospital: Te Pae Hauora o Ruahine o Tararua MidCentral, Whanganui, Te Matau a Māui Hawke's Bay, Capital & Coast, Hutt Valley, Wairarapa and Nelson Marlborough Districts.
• Te Whatu Ora Waitaha Canterbury, provided through Christchurch Hospital: Te Tai o Poutini West Coast, Waitaha Canterbury, South Canterbury Districts, Southern Districts including Invercargill.

Perinatal post-mortems will be completed as soon as is possible following a referral, within 2 business days. The post-mortem report will be made available to your Clinical support team within 8 weeks of the investigation. In some cases the report may take longer to complete if specialist tests are required.

A post-mortem report contains complex medical language and will include a description of findings highlighting and/or describing any abnormalities. You will be asked to come into the hospital for an appointment and your obstetrician will talk through the results You can request a copy of the post-mortem report from your obstetrician once you have had a meeting to discuss the results. 

For health professionals, specific details relating to the referral process are located in the clinicians' section of Healthpoint. Please contact  if you require access.