#CarryTheirNames Raises Over £11,000

Published on: 03/12/2019

“Oh the places you’ll go”

We are over the moon to announce that you raised over £11,000 for our #CarryTheirNames campaign! We can’t begin to tell you what that means to a small charity like MAMA Academy in helping more babies to arrive safely.

We have put together a video which you can see below with just some of the wonderful pictures. There are so many, we couldn’t possibly include them all unfortunately! We have been totally overwhelmed with the support for the campaign and the feedback from those who have taken part. As you can see, the awareness raised really has been incredible.

One of the things we have absolutely loved about this campaign is how it has brought people together. People who haven’t lost a baby themselves have been proudly carrying names, as well as bereaved parents. Some of the places babies names have been carried have (unknowingly) had some connection to the babies parents or family which has then meant so much. 

We’ve said all along and it’s so true that all the places babies names have been carried hold significance. Even the ones you might at first consider ordinary. Why? Well because they are ALL places our babies will never get to go. These include feeding the ducks, going on the weighing scales at a baby weigh in clinic, collecting conkers, going to school, a ballet class (all places hearts have been carried in 2019!) It’s simply impossible to convey in words the magnitude of what is lost when a baby dies. We hope that #CarryTheirNames in some small way captures this.

Then there are of course the more far away places we could never have even dreamt names would be carried. The base camp of Everest, Hollywood, Japan, The Philippines, Cape Verde to name but a few! Our babies names certainly have been on their adventures.

Thank you SO MUCH everyone who has taken part, whether that was by carrying names, or registering your baby’s name to be carried. You all really are amazing!

Watch this space for #CarryTheirNames to begin again in 2020. We will be sending out a questionnaire to participants to see if anyone has any ideas on how we can make 2020’s campaign even better. We will also be looking for volunteers to help in a number of different ways. If you are interested in volunteering for #CarryTheirNames 2020, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with lisa@mamaacademy.org.uk 

What have the funds raised enabled us to do?

Did you see our new Christmas campaign? We have already sent over 19,000 pregnancy essential leaflets to hospitals for free in 2019! Funds received by the charity always help in our quest to continue to send these leaflets (that are also available in 11 different languages) and our pictorial “When to call the midwife” posters to hospitals for free throughout the UK. 

A new digital age in maternity

More and more hospitals are moving from handheld antenatal notes to digital apps and we have therefore been working with companies to ensure our life saving information is available within these new digital systems.

We have also been developing a new “Wallet” for those going digital too. Whilst there are many benefits to notes being digital, we believe that it is still absolutely vital that important information is always to hand. We are looking forward to revealing and launching our new project in 2020 that we are confident will help save more babies lives. The funds raised from #CarryTheirNames have helped to make this possible.

Our website

With this digital maternity age in mind, we are also busy redesigning our website. With so much mis-information out there for parents, it’s more important than ever. We receive thousands of visits to our website every single week and we want to make sure that all of our information is easy to find and engaging for parents-to-be. Our midwife section is also a go to place for many midwives when researching stillbirth prevention, looking for good practice examples and is a hub of resources, reports and statistics. The money raised will make a real difference in ensuring we are able to continue to spread our life saving messages.