Resources
Resources
Support for you
Bereavement care can be professionally and emotionally challenging for staff in any setting.
Sands is here to support anyone affected by pregnancy loss and baby death, including healthcare staff, volunteers and workplace professionals.
Call our helpline if you would like to talk someone in confidence.
The Sands helpline also provides information and guidance so please do call if you require assistance when working with a bereaved parent, or family.
Telephone:
0808 164 3332
Email:helpline@sands.org.uk
Tools for practice
National Bereavement Care Pathway (NCBP)
The NBCP is designed to ensure anyone who experiences pregnancy loss or baby death receives the best possible care.
Parental engagement in review resources
A suite of resources to help engage parents during a review or investigation process.
Signs of life guidance
This UK guidance is to support the assessment and documentation of signs of life in extremely preterm births. It aims to reduce the confusion and distress experienced by parents and increase the consistency of the registration of births and deaths.
Memory boxes
A Sands memory box is a tool for high quality bereavement care, our boxes help parents and families establish a bond with their baby.
Miscarriage Association eLearning for health professionals
This free resource helps health professionals provide the best care for women experiencing miscarriage, ectopic and molar pregnancy.
Sands' Support for Hospitals brochure
Sands has a range of service and resources for hospitals and healthcare professionals. This flyer provides details of all Sands offers.
This flyer is suitable for distribution at conferences, events, hospitals and universities.
Bereavement support book
A guide for parents and families who have experienced the death of their baby. Available in Urdu, Arabic, Polish, Mandarin, Bengali, Portuguese, Punjabi, Hindi and Welsh.
Sands post mortem consent package
One important way to increase post mortem rates is to improve the quality of the consent process. The Sands Post Mortem Consent Package improves the consent process for both bereaved parents and professionals.
Sands Training and Education postcard
A promotional postcard outlining Sands’ training offer for healthcare professionals.
This postcard is suitable for distribution at conferences, events, hospitals and universities.
Reading List
These books have been recommended by some of the bereaved parents we work with. They provide insight into the experience of baby loss.
- Loving You From Here: Stories of Grief, Hope and Growth When a Baby Dies, Susan Clark
- A gift of words, Sheryl McMahon
- It’s ok that you’re not ok, Megan Devine
- Life after baby loss: a companion and guide for parents, Nicola Gaskin
- Lives Unlived, Anja Uhren (anjauhren.com)
- Why baby loss matters, Kay King
- The first breath, Olivia Gordon
- Empty Cradle, Broken Heart: Surviving the Death of your Baby, Deborah L Davis
- An Exact Replica of a Figment of my Imagination, Elizabeth McCracken
If Not For You: A Memoir, Georgina Lucas
Books to read with children
- In the Stars, Sam Kitson
- Muddles, Puddles and Sunshine, Winston’s Wish
- Where are You Lydie?, Emma Poore
- The invisible string, Patrice Karst
- Water Bugs and Dragonflies: Explaining death to young children, Doris Stickney
Let’s Talk About When Someone Dies: Starting conversations with children about death and bereavement, Molly Potter
If you have any book recommendations that you would like to add to this list, please contact us with your suggestions.
References
- Boyle et al. 2020. Clinical practice guidelines for perinatal bereavement care—An overview. Women and Birth. 33. 207-210.
- Campbell, H.E. et al. 2017. Healthcare and wider societal implications of stillbirth: a population-based cost-of-illness study. BJOG International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.
- Ellis, A. 2016. Systematic review to understand and improve care after stillbirth: a review of parents’ and healthcare professionals’ experiences. Pregnancy and Childbirth. 16:16.
- Garcia, R. et al, 2020. A qualitative study exploring the experiences of bereavement after stillbirth in Pakistani, Bangladeshi and white British mothers living in Luton, UK. Midwifery. 91.
- Hughes et al. 2013. Perinatal bereavement care: Are we meeting families’ needs? British Journal of Midwifery. VOL:21.4. 248-253.
- Kingdon, C. et al. 2019. Inequalities and stillbirth in the UK: a meta-narrative review. British Journal of Midwifery Open 2019;9:e029672
- Murphy, S. et al. 2017. The psychological, social, and economic impact of stillbirth on families. Seminars in Fetal & Neonatal Medicine 22:129e134.
- Pollock et al. 2020. Pregnancy after loss during the COVID19 pandemic. Women and Birth. 33.540-543.
- Riggs, D. et al. 2020 Men, trans/masculine, and non-binary people’s experiences of pregnancy loss: an international qualitative study. BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth (2020) 20:482
- Shakespeare, C. et al. 2020. The RESPECT Study for consensus on global bereavement care after stillbirth. International Journal of Gynaecology and Obstetrics. 149.137-147.
- Smith et al. 2020. Parents’ experiences of care following the loss of a baby at the margins between miscarriage, stillbirth and neonatal death: a UK qualitative study. International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. Online.
- Volgsten, H. et al 2018, Longitudinal study of emotional experiences, grief and depressive symptoms in women and men after miscarriage. Midwifery 64 (2018) 23–28
- Quenby, S. et al. 2021. Miscarriage matters: the epidemiological, physical, psychological, and economic costs of early pregnancy loss. The Lancet. 397:10285:1658-1667.
Hackett, J. et al. 2022. ‘It was like an airbag, it cushioned the blow’: A multi-site qualitative study of bereaved parents’ experiences of using cooling facilities. Palliative Medicine – SAGE Journals. Online
Baby Loss Terminology
Baby Loss is a general term used around the world to describe the various experiences of pregnancy loss and the death of a baby.
The length of pregnancy or cause of death does not dictate the depth of grief felt by parents and families. In the UK, the length of pregnancy does have legal implications in respect of registration of birth and applicable statutory entitlements. The legal definitions of baby loss are:
Miscarriage, including molar and ectopic pregnancy: Pregnancy loss before 24 weeks of pregnancy
Stillbirth: death of a baby before or during birth, after 24 weeks of pregnancy
Neonatal death: is when a baby dies shortly after birth, including those born before 24 weeks of pregnancy
Termination for medical reasons (TFMR): when a pregnancy is ended because of a life limiting or a life altering medical condition. This can be at any stage of pregnancy, therefore legally defined as a miscarriage or stillbirth, depending on the length of the pregnancy
Sudden Unexpected Death in Infancy (SUDI): death of a baby when there is no apparent cause of death
