The quarterly meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Baby Loss took place in the Palace of Westminster on 28th October. The meeting, chaired by MP Antoinette Sandbach, included an overview of this years’ Baby Loss Awareness Week, as well as an update from the National Bereavement Care Pathway, and a synopsis of the Centre for Mental Health’s report for Petals ‘Life after Loss’. https://petalscharity.org/lifeafterloss/
Latest stats from the ONS suggest a slight decrease in numbers of stillbirths & neonatal deaths in England – to reach the government’s target to halve the rate of stillbirths and neonatal deaths by 2025, we need to reduce this further; from 4.0(2018) to 2.6 per 1000 births for stillbirths and from 2.8(2018) to 1.5 per 1000 for neonatal deaths.
Recommendations from the 2019 BLAW Alliance Report: ‘Governments and the NHS must ensure that any parent who has suffered pregnancy or baby loss and needs high-quality specialist psychological support can access it free of charge, at a time and place that is right for them, wherever they live in the UK’ Out of Sight, Out of Mind: Bereaved parents falling through the gaps in mental health care
The National Bereavement Care Pathway (NBCP) was launched in 2017 and has been piloted in 32 NHS Trusts in England. It was established to ensure bereaved parents and their families are supported in the best way possible. There are now 45 NHS sites across England actively using the Pathway, with another 70+ sites expressing interest in adopting it https://www.sands.org.uk/about-sands/media-centre/news/2019/05/national-bereavement-care-pathway-helps-improve-care-received
Earlier this month, the International Stillbirth Alliance held its’ Annual Conference in Madrid and reported that globally, each day 14,000 babies are stillborn or die during the neonatal period. Some good news is that the UK seem to be leading the way in bereavement care for parents, with many countries struggling to provide support. However, more work needs to be done in the UK for staff support and access to high-quality training.
The APPG meeting concluded with Clea Harmer, CEO of SANDS, presenting an overview of BLAW 2019. In the last ten years, the BLAW alliance has grown from 17 – 89 members. There were more than 265 buildings across the country lit up in pink and blue, the ‘wave of light’ trended on twitter and there was more press and media coverage than ever before