EP3: Hope, Advocacy, and Healing: Social Work in Fetal Care

Social work is one of fetal care's most vital — and least understood — roles. In this episode of The Fetal Frontline, host Kris Rimbos sits down with Beth Moorhouse, a social worker specializing in fetal and perinatal care, for a grounded conversation about what it really takes to support families through the most uncertain moments of a pregnancy.Beth explains how she builds trust fast with families who arrive in crisis, how she helps parents process life-changing news step by step, and how she advocates for access — transportation, lodging, FMLA, insurance, and the social determinants that shape every outcome. She unpacks culturally sensitive, patient-centered care, the team "huddle" that delivers one compassionate message, and the unique, personal lens social work brings to the interdisciplinary table. She also opens up about the hardest parts of the work: supporting families through impossible decisions without ever steering them, giving voice to grief, gathering mementos like a heartbeat bear, perinatal mental health, and the support group she helped launch with Postpartum Support International — closing on how she cares for herself, the misconception she'd most like to correct, and why this work matters.In this episode:- What a fetal care social worker actually does — counseling, advocacy, care coordination, grief support- Building rapport in minutes, and meeting families where they are- Advocacy and equity: removing the barriers between families and care- The huddle, the team, and social work's personal lens- Impossible decisions, held with compassion and zero judgment- Grief, mementos, perinatal mental health, and caring for the whole familyChapters:- 0:00 — The role of social work in fetal care- 0:54 — From maternal-child care to the fetal frontier- 4:12 — What surprised her most- 5:29 — Building trust fast: the assessment- 7:32 — Processing hard news & impossible decisions- 10:54 — Advocacy: giving families a voice- 13:31 — Barriers, equity & social determinants- 17:04 — Culturally sensitive, patient-centered care- 19:52 — The team, the huddle & social work's lens- 28:30 — Supporting decisions without steering them- 34:51 — Grief, loss & gathering mementos- 39:59 — Support groups & perinatal mental health- 45:12 — Coping, self-care & the whole family- 50:42 — Reflections: why this work mattersGuest: Beth Moorhouse, MSW, LCSW, PMH-C — social worker specializing in fetal & perinatal care.Host: Kris Rimbos — host of The Fetal Frontline and an FTNN board member.