PONE-D-22-07345

Addressing obstetricians’ awareness of compassion, communication and self-care when caring for families experiencing stillbirth

PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Hennessy,

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The reviewers have positive feedback about this manuscript. Yet, two of them suggested important revisions that I fully support to further improve the quality of the study-presentation. Many thanks for addressing the proposed revisions in detail. 

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Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Partly

Reviewer #2: Partly

Reviewer #3: Yes

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2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: I Don't Know

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

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3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: No

Reviewer #3: Yes

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4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

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5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: I really enjoyed reading this piece of work. It describes a really innovative approach to learning in a vital part of maternity care.

The paper is written well and is easy to read.

With regards to the methodology I believe the delegates completed the questionnaire at the end of the session, including a self-analysis of their knowledge before the training. I wonder if asking this after the training influenced these scores at all?

I can’t comment on the robustness of the methodology or the statistical interpretation as outside of my area of expertise.

As a clinician working in the field of maternity safety I welcome this type of innovative training for situations that are less commonly encountered. I also think the exploration of the affect of stillbirth on obstetricians is an important aspect of this work.

Reviewer #2: McNamara et al present a compelling, important manuscript about an understudied and underappreciated area of obstetrical care: how to best care for patients with late trimester pregnancy or early neonatal losses. The paper is straightforward, clearly written, with results that are concisely laid out.

That being said, there is one large omission: what actually was the training that the authors are discussing? One key element of any publication, and this especially holds for the PLOS journals, is to share all the data that would be necessary for a reader to repeat and confirm the described studies in another location, at another time, with a new group of test subjects. Unfortunately, there are no details presented on what actually happened in the workshops that were held or how someone might repeat such a workshop.

As with any scientific study the methods need to be a clear set of instructions on how to repeat the study. It is not obvious to me how this might be done, but some suggestions follow that might be presented in the Appendix:

1. Can the authors supply transcripts or audio recordings of the workshops? Might these include the instructions given to the participants, the exercises they participated in, the actual mock loss sessions they had to act in? In the spirit of Sir Alec Guinness’ quote, can they supply the “movie script” of the workshop?

2. Do the authors have any video of any of the workshops? If so, can these be posted, along with the script so others can actually emulate and replicate what this manuscript is describing?

3. If there are no transcripts, audio or video recordings (which would be unfortunate), can the authors recreate a mock workshop in writing that has sufficient detail to act as a lesson plan for someone trying to enact this program in their clinic or hospital?

Reviewer #3: Title: Consider making a shorter title. Use of the Oxford Comma in the Title

Abstract: capitalize National Theatre of Ireland and other Institutions. Use of the oxford comma (lines 59, 64).

Introduction: References should be in order of apparition (where is reference 15?). Standarize use of brackets vs parenthesis.

Line 127: Which other national advocacy service, what has hapenned to Patient Focus since 2018

Methods: Abstain from describing opinions or results in the methodology.

Results: Line 280: how many trainees left early or had other commitments

More information to reproduce your workshop in other places is needed.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

Reviewer #3: No

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Addressing obstetricians’ awareness of compassion, communication, and self-care when caring for families experiencing stillbirth: Evaluation of a novel educational workshop using applied drama techniques

PONE-D-22-07345R1

Dear Dr. Hennessy,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

Within one week, you’ll receive an e-mail detailing the required amendments. When these have been addressed, you’ll receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will be scheduled for publication.

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Kind regards,

Sara Rubinelli

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.

Reviewer #1: All comments have been addressed

Reviewer #2: (No Response)

Reviewer #3: All comments have been addressed

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2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: No

Reviewer #3: Yes

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3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: I Don't Know

Reviewer #2: I Don't Know

Reviewer #3: Yes

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4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: No

Reviewer #3: Yes

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5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

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6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: Thank you for addressing my previous comments. No new comments.

Reviewer #2: (No Response)

Reviewer #3: This is an interesting study, the paper is generally well written and structured.

The authors have addressed all of my comments and made the appropiate corrections.

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7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

Reviewer #3: Yes: Francisco Javier Ruiloba Portilla

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