Publish date: 10 October 2022
To mark Baby Loss Awareness Week, Jenny Gregory and Marie Blyth share more about their roles and the importance of raising awareness about this important cause
This week is Baby Loss Awareness Week, the week provides an opportunity to raise awareness of the impact of pregnancy and baby loss; the importance that bereavement support plays in the ongoing bereavement journey; and the continuing work that is needed to improve pregnancy outcomes and save babies’ lives.
To raise awareness and to support the week, we caught up with Jenny Gregory, Senior Midwife and Co-ordinator and Marie Blyth, Teardrop Support Group Co-ordinator to find out more about their roles and the work that they do to help support families through the bereavement journey.
- What is your role at Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
Jenny: My name is Jenny Gregory and I am a Senior Midwife and Co-ordinator at Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital, alongside this role I am one of the two midwives who support bereaved families. Nira Flanighan and I both have dedicated time to improve and grow the bereavement service, incorporating the national bereavement care pathway as well as incorporating ideas from our families who attend the local teardrop bereavement support group.
The pivotal part of our role is supporting bereaved parents and working closely with these parents to develop the service appropriate to their needs.
Marie: My name is Marie Blyth and I’m the Teardrop Support Group Co-ordinator, this is a voluntary post but I also work with Maternity services at NSECH.
2. Why is it important to support Baby Loss Awareness Week
Jenny: Baby loss awareness week is an integral time as it gives families and healthcare professional’s the opportunity to publicly or privately remember their babies. Baby loss can still be such a taboo subject and not one openly discussed.
This week is a time for reflection and validation, but also celebration. A celebration of all the things the families have accomplished year on year. From fundraising to supporting other parents, to just making it through another year for some. It is imperative the parents and their families feel the support from the healthcare professionals, the trust and the general public, to let them know their babies are gone but never forgotten.
Marie: It is important to support BLAW as this gives bereaved parents the chance unite and commemorate their baby’s lives, this also helps break the silence of baby loss.
It also gives charities and organisations the opportunity to raise awareness about pregnancy loss which is still a taboo subject.
3. Where did the idea for the support videos come from?
Jenny: Carla Anderson, amongst others in the maternity team here at Northumbria, were doing amazing things with social media, patient engagement and health promotion. I felt saddened that although this was amazing work, that we didn’t have anything like this for bereaved families. Losing a baby and the aftermath is life changing and we wanted to create something that would support parents through that.
Marie: Teardrop were approached by the maternity bereavement team to ask if there was the possibility of funding towards the support videos. Teardrop felt this would be an amazing addition to offer bereaved parents and agreed to fund the whole project.
4. What is the purpose of the videos?
Jenny: There are so many decisions to make and arrangements to be taken care of following any bereavement and it is impossible to appreciate this with leaflets and books.
We felt, as a team, if we could make some short videos, guiding parents through each element this would be far more beneficial.
It was especially important to me to include as many members of the team in these videos as possible, so the parents could visualise who they might see in their journey and who would be caring for their baby.
We wanted the parents to be able to access the videos directly and if needed and share them with family and friends. These videos will also be a tool for health care professionals to be able to signpost any bereaved families, so they can see who to contact and where. The team involved in caring for bereaved families here at Northumbria is dedicated to providing parents with the support they require at the time they need it.
Marie: The purpose of the video’s is to support the bereaved parents immediately from finding out their little one has passed, all the way through their journey. The videos are there to watch whenever they need information and at their convenience.
After receiving such devastating news, things become hard to take in or understand. There are so many decisions to make and these video’s give a step by step guide of what to expect. The video’s give the parents time to digest what is expected and then they have the ability to revisit if and when they need.
Teardrop are extremely proud to be involved in such a meaningful project and a massive step in moving bereavement services forward within the trust.