This month saw the 20th Baby Loss Awareness week take place in the UK, a really important time to remember and commemorate much-loved and missed babies.
This is such an important week for so many parents in our community whose journeys have been impacted by pregnancy and baby loss by breaking the silence, sharing stories and taking part in events, including the global ‘Wave of Light’.
Every year Baby Loss week raises awareness of the impact of pregnancy and baby loss; the importance of bereavement support in the bereavement journey; and the vital work needed to improve pregnancy outcomes and to save babies’ lives.
This year’s specific theme centred on ‘Stepping Stones’ – the idea being that grief is a long and difficult journey to navigate and sometimes it’s tough to know how to take such huge steps without any support.
The aim of the week was to create a space for parents to share and feel supported – whatever their experience of loss might have been – about how they’ve coped, what’s helped (and what hasn’t), so we can all learn how to better look after each other as a community and know how to get the right kind of support when we need it.
Sands, the leading pregnancy and baby loss charity, shared some poignant, animations on the grief journey, including this one here.
The week, which ran from 9-15 October, came to a close with the global Wave of Light ceremony.
Parents were encouraged to light a candle to remember their babies lives and lost pregnancies and share photos and videos of these on social media to create a ‘Wave of Light’ across the world, using the hashtag #WaveOfLight to connect the messages. Here’s our NCT contribution on Instagram, posted to show everyone in our own community and across the world who have experienced baby loss that they are not alone, encourage conversations and connecting to support.
Sands and The Baby Loss Awareness Alliance charities both offer lots of different types of practical and emotional support with pregnancy and baby loss, including ways you can help someone whose baby has died.
Stay informed about your pregnancy
Always contact your GP or midwife if something doesn’t feel right during your pregnancy. You might find it useful to be know how much your baby should be moving around – take a look at our article about baby movement in the womb.
Group B Streptococcus (also known as GBS) is a common bacterium that usually causes no harm. However in rare cases during pregnancy or when you’ve just had a baby, it can cause serious complications. Read more.
The Kit Tarka Foundation works to prevent newborn baby deaths through raising awareness of neonatal herpes.
We have lots of articles about tests, scans and antenatal checks on our website.
