Call For Better Support For Baby Loss Parents

Our fantastic trustee Angie Bowles was featured on Meridian News last night, where they ran a piece about mum Sarah’s experiences during her rainbow pregnancy with Sebastian and the significance of continuity of carer for bereaved parents.

See if you can spot the MAMA Academy Wellbeing Wallet a couple of times in the report!

Continuity of carer is a model where parents have care from the same midwife during their pregnancy, birthing experience, and postnatally – and it has been shown to be linked to improved outcomes. The NHS is working on a transformation programme to offer continuity of carer to every pregnant person within two years.

As this news report points out, it is important that groups who have more chance of poor outcomes, such as certain ethnicities, get prioritised for these sorts of models. Here at MAMA Academy we completely support the calls to prioritise bereaved parents in subsequent (rainbow) pregnancies in this too. We are also delighted with the recent – long overdue – announcement that there will be specialist mental health hubs for bereaved mums who need additional support in subsequent pregnancies. We would welcome the expansion of access to these specialist services to include bereaved fathers and other non-birthing parents, for whom the anxiety and fear is no less real and no less impactful on their mental health.

Pregnancy after a loss is often a terrifying experience, and having consistent care from a midwife who knows the details of your previous experiences, your hopes and your fears is so important for these families. Having to explain your loss and your heightened anxiety repeatedly to different professionals increases pressure on these families. Along with other charities run by and for bereaved parents, such as ourselves, we completely support the calls made by SANDS’ CEO, Clea Harmer, in this report.