Our campaigns have succeeded in improving maternity safety and bereavement care. They've also pushed to make sure that groups who are at higher risk of baby loss aren’t overlooked
We wouldn’t have created these changes without the hard work of a huge number of campaigners. Sign up to our campaign newsletter to get involved.
Safe staffing campaign
In 2022, we ran a survey which found that bereavement midwives have on average only two hours allocated to each death, including direct care for families, liaising with funeral and counselling services, and administrative support. This is obviously not enough. Read the full bereavement care survey.
During Baby Loss Awareness Week 2022, over 1,000 Sands campaigners sent letters to their political representatives in all four nations of the UK for our safe staffing campaign.
In November 2022, the Government committed to hiring an extra 2,000 midwives in England. They also agreed to a long-term and independently verified workforce plan. Read the full details of the Government announcement.
The Government’s announcements show what our community can achieve by making our voices heard.
Bereavement care training
In June 2022, for #TogetherWeAreSands, we asked campaigners to write to their local NHS chief executive to ensure that staff across their trust can access vital bereavement care training.
Our survey found that less than half of NHS trusts and boards across the UK make this training available to healthcare professionals who provide care for parents following pregnancy loss or the death of a baby - and only 12% are given time during working hours to attend. Read the full bereavement care training survey.
We were over the moon to reach 92% of trusts and boards across the UK with this campaign. Some of these have since been in touch with us to see how we can support them to improve their bereavement care training.
Following this NHS England also announced an additional £1.3m in funding to improve bereavement care provision, including training. Read about the full NHS announcement on bereavement care provision.
Calling for a confidential enquiry into Asian and British Asian baby deaths
During Baby Loss Awareness Week 2021, we asked our campaigners to contact their MP to support a confidential enquiry into Asian and British Asian baby deaths to go alongside the enquiry into Black and Black British baby deaths.
Asian and Black babies are more likely to die than White babies, even when other factors such as socio-economic status are accounted for. Our more recent Listening Project exposed some of the systemic issues leading to less safe maternity and neonatal care for some Black and Asian families. Read the full Listening Project report.
The government agreed to the confidential enquiry we campaigned for, which was a really important step in reducing inequalities and saving babies lives. It presented an opportunity to make headway in ensuring that all lessons are learnt, and preventable deaths avoided. Read more about the government agreeing to the confidential enquiry.
In May 2023, Sands won a prestigious Sheila McKechnie Foundation (SMK) ‘Amplifying Voices’ Award for this campaign. Read more about the SMK award.
Improving psychological support for bereaved parents
Our 2019 report Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind exposed that the psychological support that many bereaved parents need is all too often unavailable, inaccessible or in appropriate.
The report found that 60% of bereaved parents that feel that they need specialist psychological support cannot access it on the NHS. Read the full Out of Sight, Out of Mind report.
In 2021, we were pleased that NHS England announced more mental health support for bereaved mothers. With 26 new hubs bringing together maternity services, reproductive health and psychological therapy under one roof including for those bereaved by the death of a baby. This is a great start in helping to fill the current gaps for bereaved parents.
However, there is still more to be done, and this is an issue we will be picking up again soon, so please look out for ways you can get involved.
Read more about how Sands has created change over the past 50 years.