Durham and Wearside Sands recently organised three highly successful Sands one-day training workshops in County Durham.  The workshops were attended by 52 midwives from ten maternity units and a university, two of whom even traveled over 100miles from Huddersfield to participate.

Durham and Wearside Sands funded and advertised the days, organised the venue and catering, and took all the bookings. The training was delivered by the Sands improving bereavement care team as part of the new bereavement care training programme.  The initial plan was to hold a single one-day workshop for midwives in a local hospital but word spread and interest was so great that three one-day workshops ended up being held over consecutive days and at an external venue.

Ashleigh Corker, Sands Network Coordinator for the North East of England and Durham and Wearside Sands befriender, helped organise the workshops and commented:

“As a Sands Group, we speak to bereaved parents all the time and know how being shown kindness and understanding can make all the difference to their ability to cope.  Naturally, improving bereavement care is something we all feel passionately about.

“We are so thrilled at how successful the days were and that as a direct consequence of the initial events, we now have a booking for 40 student midwives to be trained in October.  Plus the midwives who attended from Calderdale Maternity Unit are now working with Huddersfield Sands to organise their own workshop.  It just shows that there is huge interest out there for this type of training and I would urge other groups to speak to their local maternity units about it.

“An added bonus has been that it has given our group such a boost.  The positive feedback we have received from midwives has been brilliant and we really feel we are making a difference.”

Ronnie Turner, Sands Improving Bereavement Care Manager said:

“We have worked extremely hard to create an informative and relevant training programme which focuses on enabling professionals to develop the skills to communicate sensitively and effectively with bereaved parents. Sands Groups around the country are in an ideal position to help with the roll out of the initiative, not only do they know from first hand experience of the importance of good, sensitive bereavement care, but many also have fantastic links into local hospitals and maternity units.  With their help, we can work to reach every midwife and positively impact the experience of every bereaved parent.”

Our Sands one-day workshops Pregnancy loss and the death of a baby: Sands training for professionals enable participants to develop the knowledge, insight and skills to provide high quality, sensitive care to parents who experience the death of a baby, before, during or shortly after birth.  They include the invaluable opportunity to speak to bereaved parents who attend each workshop to share their story.

The midwife feedback from the County Durham events was outstanding:

“The mix of group work, video, PowerPoint and guest speaker input kept the day informative and interesting. Brilliant study day – lots of useful insight/practice points to take back to my unit.”

“Everything was very useful in particular the parent speakers. Excellent day, will recommend to my colleagues.”

“The most useful part of the day was engaging with the parents and getting an insight into the emotions and journey they go on with the loss of a child. Excellent day. I feel like I will take a lot back to practice.”

100% of participants found the day beneficial to their practice and 100% agreed and strongly agreed that they had a greater understanding of the unique impact of grief in relation to pregnancy loss and the death of a baby on parents and their families. The attendees reported feeling much more confident and better equipped to break bad news and communicate sensitively with bereaved parents and their families amongst other things.

If you are interested in finding out more how you can help organise and fund a bereavement care training workshop in your area, please contact training@uk-sands.org