Baby Loss Awareness Week is an awareness event that is run and supported by a number of charities including Sands, Bliss, Tommy’s and Miscarriage Association. It allows parents of lost children to come together and remember their angel babies through sharing their story, lighting candles or making donations to charities that support bereaved parents. It encourages a safe space for parents to talk about a topic which is often poorly understood and not talked about enough.

Returning to ‘normal’ life can often be impossible for many bereaved parents and is a common challenge faced. For many, it is a time which has them questioning what their new ‘normal’ will even be. Sometimes a bereaved parent can look around them and wonder how everyone else is carrying on with life as if nothing has happened…even if these people are strangers and have no idea what the parents are going through. It is hard to adjust when their world has stopped, everything seems bleak, yet they are expected to return to work and ‘move on’, because the world continues to spin. Parents of bereaved children never ‘just move on’, but they learn to adapt, to live differently and learn to carry the pain of their lost baby with them each day.

This years’ theme is ‘Stepping Stones’ and encourages people to share their stories. It explores the steps and unexpected directions that bereaved parents’ lives may take following a loss. Grief can turn a parent’s world ‘upside-down’ and has a profound impact on mental health and wellbeing, which is why Life Links would like to help raise awareness and reduce the stigma around baby loss, so that individuals feel more supported.

Two of the perhaps most memorable events of the awareness week fall on Saturday 15th October 2022. There is a Ribbon Run in which individuals can ask for their friends/family to sponsor them to do a 5km run in memory of lost babies, with donations going to support Sands. A member of our team (Daisy) signed up for the 5km run and has raised over £500 amongst friends and family in donations.