Keep checking back as we continually update this page. Contact us with any suggestions or queries or for further support.
The Living with Loss program has been co-developed by a team of bereaved parents and health professionals, including GPs, psychologists, social workers, and midwives. This interactive program shares evidence-based strategies and covers a broad range of topics including differences in grief, managing intense feelings, facing difficult situations and conversations, strengthening relationships, and navigating the future. The Stillbirth CRE are leading a research study to determine the effectiveness of this program. We’d like to invite bereaved parents to visit http://livingwithloss.com.au to find out more about the study and register to participate. Your participation and feedback will help us to evaluate the effectiveness of this program and improve grief support options for parents in the future.
Read here about these inspiring stories of bereaved mothers who donate their breastmilk
“Why Is Mommy Crying?” A book explaining early pregnancy loss to young children. Here is the link to the Amazon book page and click here to listen to a blog
Stillbirth Stories brings a series of eight animations each touching on a different aspect of baby loss
The Still Born project was initiated by artist Adinda van ’t Klooster to help raise awareness of stillbirth. Learn about the Still Born exhibition at : https://www.ideastore.co.uk/still-born-exhibition
Name your stillborn baby; join the Each Egg A World project.
The second edition of the Still Born book has now been published and is available to buy online for £ 25 including postage. It includes a new ten-page article with images of the Each Egg a World Online artwork. You can buy it here: https://www.stillbornproject.org.uk/shop.
Also, if you would like to receive the regular mailing list you can add yourself on the affectformations website here: https://www.affectformations.net/mailing-list. Alternatively, send an email to stillbornproject@gmail.com
A new charity has been launched called Benjamin’s Gift with the mission to “Provide financial support to bereaved parents for medical and hospital costs associated with stillbirth”. Please visit their website to learn more!
Star Legacy announces: A new Spanish Speaking Bereaved Parents group will be held on the first Friday of the month along with Bereaved Parents being held on the 1st and 3rd Monday of the month along with 2nd and 4th Thursdays of the month. Click here for more info.
See this recent paper by Stillbirth Advocacy Working Group member Sue Steen on “Raising the bar: development of a perinatal bereavement programme“.
Mesothelioma Hope is an advocacy organisation that provides free educational resources, support, and information about cancers/diseases caused by asbestos. Some of these online resources for children can be found here and include:
- Children’s Bereavement Center provides free online articles and videos for children to learn coping mechanisms and relate to other children in similar situations.
- Grieving.com has forums available for children of all ages that are dealing with the death of a loved one.
- National Alliance for Grieving Children provides children and families with online resources and support groups for children dealing with loss.
- The Dougy Center based in Portland, OR has a multitude of online activities and resources for children that are grieving.
ISA Board chair Susannah Hopkins Leisher published this Op Ed about her experience of her son Wilder’s stillbirth plus a call for recognition, answers, support, collaboration, and action on stillbirth!
Listen to this podcast: the first of a new series by Ashleigh Smith The Glimmer Podcast: Should we all see a psychologist after pregnancy loss? on Apple Podcasts
And this one: Ashleigh Smith interviews Claire Storey, ISA board member The Glimmer Podcast: The International Organization working to reduce baby-loss
This Father’s Day, Marquise and Morgan Goodwin share their story of the loss of their three babies.
Katy Gold, former ISA board chair, is interviewed in this article from The Atlantic about changing practices around stillbirth bereavement support in Denmark.
Resources on bereavement support for fathers, from ISA board member Francine de Montigny at the University of Quebec (also available in French and subtitled in Portuguese):
-
- The youtube documentary “Helping Men in Distress” illustrates ways to create a bond of trust with men in crisis, and to help them in their distress. Through the testimony of seven health and social service practitioners – nurses, a social worker, a physician, a psychotherapist, educators, researchers – this 17 minute video illustrates different emotions and reactions that men can experience. The practitioners share their way of establishing a relationship of trust with a man in crisis and propose interventions to reach men who are entrenched in silence, who are depressed, living a bereavement experience, aggressive or angry. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROKgjOXh47g
Chrissy Teigen breaks a long-standing culture of silence by sharing her loss
https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/02/us/chrissy-teigen-pregnancy-complications-support-trnd/index.html
Ali Xanda has produced a wonderful song called “Heartbeat” about miscarriage/stillbirth for those who have loved and lost their precious babies: listen to it here
Executive Summary of the Lancet’s 2016 Ending Preventable Stillbirths series:
For Parents/Families: Glow in the Woods
For Fathers:
-
- From ISA board member Francine de Montigny at the University of Quebec (also available in French and subtitled in Portuguese): The Father Friendly Initiative team has published a video on men’s experience of their child’s death, When the storm hits. Five fathers share their experience of their child’s death and the tools that have helped them. This video is available for men and women to view in the comfort of their home. It also aims to support training for the health and social care milieu, as well as community organizations.
For Health Workers:
- Clinical Management of Stillbirth Guidance
- Stillbirth Toolkit for providers
- IMPROVE is a new online training package designed to support healthcare professionals in responding to women who have experienced stillbirth, conduct perinatal autopsy and mortality reviews, and communicate with bereaved parents.
Bereavement-related research:
- International review of Maternal Bereavement Experience Surveys. The National Care Experience Programme, Ireland
- Miscarriage matters. A new Series of 3 papers published in The Lancet reviews this evidence on miscarriage and challenges many misconceptions. The authors, Siobhan Quenby, Arri Coomarasamy, and colleagues, call for a complete rethink of the narrative around miscarriage and a comprehensive overhaul of medical care and advice offered to women who have miscarriages. April 2021
- Salgado, H.O., Andreucci, C.B., Gomes, A.C.R. et al. The perinatal bereavement project: development and evaluation of supportive guidelines for families experiencing stillbirth and neonatal death in Southeast Brazil—a quasi-experimental before-and-after study. Reprod Health 18, 5 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12978-020-01040-4
- Dr Aliki Christou at the University of Sydney and team have developed interviewer guidelines for interviewing bereaved mothers and fathers in Afghanistan; please email her at aliki.christou@sydney.edu.au for further information or to access these. You can access the training manual here: Stillbirth study Afghanistan_Training Manual for Interviewers_v1.1_10.10.17
- Parents’ experiences of care and support after stillbirth in rural and urban maternity facilities: a qualitative study in Kenya and Uganda
- What bereaved parents want health care providers to know when their babies are stillborn: a community-based participatory study
- The RESPECT Study for consensus on global bereavement care after stillbirth
- Traditional practices during pregnancy and birth, and perceptions of perinatal losses in women of rural Pakistan
Country resources for information and support after stillbirth:
-
- In the UK:
- Former ISA Board chair Dr Alex Heazell is Clinical Director of the Tommy’s stillbirth research centre in St Mary’s Hospital in Manchester
- SANDS UK was a partner for ISA’s conferences in Birmingham, UK (2007) and Antigua (2011)
- National Bereavement Care Pathway (NBCP) for Pregnancy and Baby Loss
- NBCP Scotland
- In Spain:
- Umamanita, co-founded by ISA board member Jillian Cassidy
- In Italy:
- In the US:
- In the UK: