Baby Loss Awareness

Each year there is a special week allocated to be Baby Loss Awareness Week in the UK, this year it will be from 9th – 15th October and has a theme of ‘Together, we Care’  with a view to encourage people to find time for themselves and for others. As part of a community affected by baby loss, the week ends with a national invitation to light a candle at 7pm on 15th October to join with others in memory of babies who have died.

Of course, for those who have lost a baby, they do not need a special day, or week, to invite them to remember. For those who have lost a baby, every day can be a day of grief, sadness, loss, trauma and memory, and no amount of candles could ease the pain.

But there is strength and comfort to be found in knowing your baby, your loss and your pain is acknowledged by others. When a baby dies as a result of miscarriage or stillbirth, he or she has not been ‘known’ to others and the grief can feel extremely lonely for the parents. There is no-one to share their sadness with in quite the same way as a shared grief over a shared experience of life with someone. There can be no sense to be made of a life ending before it even began, and sometimes there can be seemingly no explanation as to what caused this terrible loss.

Baby loss can be utterly confusing, and sometimes people struggle to know what to say to grieving parents – fumbled words can come out wrong and saying nothing at all can be mistaken for a lack of care.

Baby loss week offers us all an opportunity to remember the babies who have died, whether they are our children, our grandchildren, or the children of a friend, a neighbour or a colleague. 

And so I invite you, during baby loss week, to reach out to those you know who are grieving, to offer a listening ear, a comforting hug, a heartfelt card and to join the wave of light at 7pm on 15th October and light a candle in memory of the babies who have died.

We live in a community where babies have died and where parents are grieving, so let’s join that community in remembering with them, and stand alongside them to show that we care.

Together, we care.