Baby Loss Awareness Week highlights an unspoken pain many suffer

At 7pm on Thursday, October 15th, the 19th annual Baby Loss Awareness Week will culminate with thousands of people across the UK lighting a candle and leaving it burning for an hour in memory of a life lost, but never forgotten.

The mission is to ‘break the silence’ and encourage people to open up and talk about how the loss of a baby impacts on their lives.

It is of course something which will never come easily for those affected but is essential for them to be able to secure the help and support they need through the most difficult of times.

Baby Loss Awareness Week has had a hugely positive impact in recent years

As a former hospital manager and solicitor who has supported families through the heartbreak of losing a baby, Baby Loss Awareness Week is an annual event of great importance and significance to me .

Baby Loss Awareness Week has had a hugely positive impact in recent years in turning what was once considered a taboo subject into something which is now much more widely and openly discussed.

Baby loss is something which needs to be addressed and talked about all year round, but the advantage of a dedicated awareness week, which this year runs from October 9-15th, is that it can really help bring the issue to a wider audience by those affected sharing their stories.

As a result, baby loss can be brought into the minds of those who maybe often don’t consider it, because thankfully they have not suffered or experienced it in their lives.

Amanda Stevens, Manager Director of Hudgell Solicitors

However, they are likely to know or come into contact with somebody who has, and having any form of understanding of the support people may require, can only be helpful.

It is also a week our team at Hudgell Solicitors proudly supports every year, as in our legal work we support many families who have lost babies in avoidable circumstances.

Crucially the week, which is now led by the stillbirth and neonatal death charity Sands UK but is also supported by many others, also seeks to drive change.

This is an area in which we have focused our work at Hudgell Solicitors, campaigning alongside charities and organisations which not only provide support to people when things have gone wrong, but also actively working to bring about change and hopefully reduce the number of families suffering such a heartbreaking loss.

This has seen us take a campaign to the heart of Government, including delivering a petition to 10 Downing Street with members of the Baby Lifeline charity, calling for the reinstatement of the Maternity Training Fund.

We also continue to support families who lose a baby and have been left with no answers as to why, investigating medical care on their behalf, with the aim of finding out the truth, and hopefully leading to improvements in maternity and neonatal care.

We know the most important thing families need from us initially is to know that we will first and foremost listen, allowing them the space and time to voice questions and fears they have often not spoken about before and try to help them navigate their way to a better understanding of how and why their devastating loss has occurred.

And when candles are lit on Thursday, whilst people who have lost remember their babies, the rest of us can take the chance to think about to how we can all help, in our own way.

Learn more about Hudgell Solicitors and how we support our clients here