Charity breaks down taboos around baby loss
University Hospitals Birmingham (UHB) Charity has been taking part in raising awareness for baby loss this month, in light of Baby Loss Awareness Week which took place between 9-15 October.
Baby loss is still deemed to be a taboo topic, but is also one that is incredibly important to talk about and to raise awareness of any warning signs for expecting mums.
The annual event offers a wonderful opportunity to bring people who have been affected by baby loss together as a community, so that they know that they're not alone.
This year, the theme for Baby Loss Awareness Week across the NHS was Wellbeing, promoting how anyone affected by pregnancy and baby loss can find ways to look after themselves and others.
The Trust held their annual memorial service as well as a wave of light service where UHB Charity provided candles. It was also a week for the bereavement teams to have further training into wellbeing to support the families they look after, as well as their team.
From the content published across the week an extra £285 was raised to go towards the Eden Suite fund - a specialised bereavement suite at the Heartlands Hospital designed to care for families who have sadly lost their baby through miscarriage, stillbirth, or neonatal death. Support from the charity provides important renovation work as well as specialised memory packs and CuddleCots.
To raise further awareness, UHB Charity set up their own baby loss awareness campaign with a strong focus on couples and how dad 's feel. A perspective that isn 't always portayed in the media.
A variety of families were interviewed across the week in a range of videos that can be found on the UHB Charity Facebook page and Instagram page. Sarah Codling shares her story about losing her baby boy Joseph when she was just eighteen-years-old here.
The campaign 's aim was to raise further awareness of those who have sadly lost babies and to showcase the supportive facilities UHB Charity are able to provide at both Heartlands and Goodhope Hospital for families who face baby loss. UHB Charity fund items, research, equipment and refurbishments, all of which the NHS can 't afford or don 't have funding for.
Clare Beesley, bereavement midwife at Heartlands Hospital, said: “Pregnancy loss awareness week is now in its nineteenth year. The week is an opportunity to bring together the community and anyone effected by pregnancy loss; a time to share experiences and offer ongoing support. This year the theme was 'wellbeing.' As a trust, alongside supporting families with our 'Time to Remember' and 'Wave of light' service, we held a staff support event with the Perinatal maternal mental health team, recognising the need to care for our staff too.
“Our trust is committed to care and support those effected by pregnancy loss and has a dedicated 24-hour maternity bereavement service with specialist facilities Eden and Snowdrop. This is essential in providing parent-led, high quality bereavement care in a safe space for families to grieve and make choices relating to their care the care of their babies. We want families to know that they are not alone and should they wish to access support, they can contact us and we can let them know about the number of services we alongside to offer ongoing support. ”
For more information on UHB Charity, visit www.hospitalcharity.org
Pictured: Sarah Codling and Joseph