The Neumark Foundation helps provide support for bereaved parents and families affected by baby loss.
With the help of a donation from The Neumark Foundation, locally based baby loss charity, Our Sam, has been able to develop the first comprehensive directory of support in the UK for anyone affected by baby loss. SOS Baby Loss is a simple, online, signposting resource for anyone needing support following miscarriage, termination for medical reasons (TMFR), stillbirth or neonatal death.
The directory will contain all local, regional and national support providers as it grows and rolls out, and will be easily accessed directly through the Our Sam website, or through the ‘Help card’ that will be provided for healthcare, guidance and support professionals to use for one-to-one signposting, or to give out to bereaved parents for self-signposting. The directory can also be used by professionals to improve their own knowledge and awareness of support for bereaved parents or themselves.
The aims of Our Sam SOS Baby Loss
The aims of this resource are;
- To create the first, comprehensive, one-stop, simple online signposting resource for anyone affected by, or working with people affected by baby loss following miscarriage, TFMR, stillbirth and neonatal death in the UK
- To enable all bereaved parents and families who want support, whether they have recently lost a baby, or at any stage in their life, to easily identify and access support when they need it
- To support healthcare, guidance, and wellbeing support professionals from across all sectors, to be able to easily and effectively signpost bereaved parents and families to the right support
- To provide a resource that will help people more easily open up a conversation that is oftenuncomfortable and difficult, in a supportive and constructive way
When will SOS Baby Loss be available?
SOS Baby Loss will be rolled out gradually, starting with a closed pilot with Liverpool Women’s NHS Foundation Trust, launching on 11th October 2021, and then a pilot with Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, the largest health board in Wales. SOS Baby Loss will be available for wider use from January 2022. The coverage of the directory will roll out through 2022, with the aim of covering the whole of the British Isles by the end of 2022.
SOS Baby Loss Roll-Out Plan
| Stage | Coverage of directory | Available |
| 1 | Wales and North West England | Mid-January 2022 |
| 2 | North East England | End of February 2022 |
| 3 | Midlands | End of March 2022 |
| 4 | South West England | End of April 2022 |
| 5 | South East England | Beginning of June 2022 |
| 6 | Scotland | End of September 2022 |
| 7 | N.Ireland | Beginning of December 2022 |
Philippa Davies, Founder of Our Sam, who struggled for 3 years to find the right support after her daughter Sam was stillborn in 2012, one of five babies she lost, and as a result was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder said “The idea for this resource originally came from a discussion with my own Counsellor from Hope House Children’s Hospice in North Wales. My dream was that one day every healthcare, guidance and support professional, across all sectors would one day have an effective way of signposting bereaved parents and families, following baby loss to the right support, when they needed it most. Now, as a member of the UK Baby Loss Alliance, we are acutely aware that effective signposting and a comprehensive directory of support is something that has been missing and much needed for a long time, and we were really pleased to be able to fill that gap. Sam’s dad, himself a website developer came up with the original concept, and following the support of funding from an additional two donors we were able to start the technical and directory development in July this year. We are incredibly grateful to Peter, Maria, Rebecca and The Neumark Foundation Board for their generous donation, baby loss, despite affecting more than three quarters of a million people each year in the UK, and the loss often leading to isolation and mental health struggles, is an area that struggles to attract funding, as it remains very much a taboo subject that nobody wants to talk about. The directory will constantly grow and evolve, and we will always endeavour to react to change and need, to ensure that this directory remains the best friend it can be for parents, families and professionals, ensuring identification of the right support at the right time. There are many incredible baby loss support providers out there, but often people have no awareness of them, with the exception of the very big charities such as Sands and Tommys, unless they are sadly faced with the trauma of loss. Through SOS Baby Loss, we want to make that trauma easier to manage for everyone involved, by helping parents and families find that support quickly and easily. Early next year we hope to have small teams in each region (England and Wales, followed by Scotland and Ireland), whose roles it will be to constantly monitor and develop the SOS Baby Loss and start to embed it across all sectors”.
If you would like to find out more about and SOS Baby Loss, their website is oursam.org.uk