The UK Government has launched a recent scheme to supply baby loss certificates for fogeys who’ve experienced pregnancy loss before 24 weeks.
The scheme is “designed to formally recognise the devastating lack of a baby while pregnant”.
From 22 February, parents who’ve experienced the lack of a baby before 24 weeks gestation after 1 September 2018 will give you the option to use for a certificate. Either parent may make an application, but they have to be over 16 years of age and have been living in England on the time of the loss.
The scheme is available in response to the Pregnancy Loss Review published last 12 months and as a part of the ladies’s health priorities for 2024.
‘This piece of paper proves our babies existed’
The Minister for the Women’s Health Strategy, Maria Caulfield, said, “We have listened to oldsters who’ve passed through what might be an unbelievably painful experience of losing a baby, and that’s the reason today we’re introducing baby loss certificates to recognise their loss, as a part of our wider long-term plan for ladies’s health in our country, the Women’s Health Strategy.
“I would love to thank the tireless work of campaigners and charities for his or her work in supporting this agenda and making the certificates a reality.”
Zoe Clark-Coates, founder and CEO of the Mariposa Trust and co-chair and writer of the Pregnancy Loss Review, said, “I’m thrilled that from today thousands and thousands of families will finally get the formal acknowledgement that their baby existed and I hope this can help their grieving process.”
Samantha Collinge, Bereavement Lead Midwife at George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust and co-chair of the Pregnancy Loss Review said, “Miscarriage and other sorts of pre-24 weeks baby loss is commonly minimised and treated as a ‘clinical event’ or ‘just considered one of those things’ quite than the lack of a baby and sadly the emotional impact of the loss is commonly disregarded.”
She went on to say, “Zoe and I hope that the introduction of a national certificate of baby loss will give bereaved parents the official recognition that their babies did exist and that their babies’ lives, nevertheless temporary, really do matter.”
Pregnancy Loss Review highlights pain and challenges of miscarriage
According to the Independent, around 14 babies die before, during or soon after birth within the UK day by day, but campaigners have long warned the difficulty is routinely ignored by society and stays a taboo.
Speaking on behalf of the Lily Mae Foundation, which supports families impacted by a baby’s death, Amy Jackson said they were pleased “it has finally been recognised that a baby born before 24 weeks deserves the acknowledgement that another human being receives”.
She added, “To a lot of our families who’ve sadly lost a baby before 24 weeks, this small gesture will mean the world, and supply recognition that their precious baby existed.
“To discriminate between gestations only serves to belittle a loss before 24 weeks and we on the Lily Mae Foundation truly consider that a loss is devastating irrespective of what the gestation. The lack of a whole lifetime of hopes and dreams.”
In the past, tragic stories have been shared of girls who’ve been told to retrieve the stays of their baby from the bathroom or to store them within the fridge. The Government has now committed to a review of guidance on the sensitive handling of stays so that ladies and families aren’t asked to treat the stays of any babies they’ve lost as “waste products“.
Other recommendations include allowing women to receive treatment in the event that they experience recurrent miscarriages, increasing funding for bereavement support related to baby loss, granting bereavement leave for employees who experience baby loss before 24 weeks, and improving details about baby loss in healthcare settings.
Right To Life UK spokesperson, Catherine Robinson, said, “The recent Government scheme is a step in the correct direction because it recognises the loss suffered when an unborn baby dies, whatever the gestation of the kid. It is nice that the voices of fogeys who’ve been through the agony of miscarriage are actually being heard.
“Additionally, much of the discussion around baby loss is linked to the grief of the parents, and these certificates are being presented as recognition of this grief specifically. The lifetime of every child within the womb matters, whether or not they were wanted. Every aborted child was the lack of a human life, whether or not there may be a certificate to recognise it.
“While we welcome the introduction of the child loss certificate scheme, it highlights the dissonance between recognising that a baby exists before 24 weeks, and allowing a baby of the identical age to be aborted.”
