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Thanks to Heartfelt for sharing their Guidance for photographers and parents 200326_HF_Camera_Kit_Tips_vFINAL regarding taking photos following a stillbirth or newborn death.
Read this guidance by Dina Smith for the workplace, How to Support a Colleague Who Just Lost a Baby
Dying with dignity and love: Read this beautiful tribute by Tamarin Norwood published in the Lancet
Adam Sanford is an artist and illustrator. He is a dad who lost a baby boy in March of 2020. Through his grief journey he made a couple of projects based on the son he lost and wants to share them with you as a resource. 1. Here is a link to the short tribute he made for his funeral. It is a short illustrated story about his arrival into heaven. It is on Instagram and completely free to view and read. 2. A year after his loss Adam wrote and illustrated a children’s book named after him. It is about loss, grief, and support. It is very colorful and whimsical, and was published this year. Here is a link to information about the book.
Check out this book by Natasha Baggaley about the taboo of miscarriage titled ‘Miss Carriage & her elephant’. Available for sale on Amazon here
Memorials of Distinction have created a guide to the benefits of gardening when coping with grief. The guide highlights:
- The benefits of gardening that help to reduce painful emotions
- Essential steps for starting your garden
- How gardening can reduce feelings of grief
The guide can be accessed here
The Bluebird’s Egg: this song and video were produced by Layla Zoe for women who have lost their children through miscarriage, still birth, or other cause. Listen and watch here
Check out this delightful resource for children whose parents experience a stillbirth: available on amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Rainbow-JeNai-Kuhn/dp/1736580507/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=rainbow+book+je’nai+kuhn&qid=1632076071&sr=8-1
Here is the website of the author: https://www.jenaikuhn.com
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
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 [email protected]
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 Paula Quigley 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
For Parents/Families: Glow in the Woods
For Fathers:
- New understandings of fathers’ experiences of grief and loss following stillbirth and neonatal death: A scoping review
- 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:
- 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:
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Research from Denmark on various aspects of bereavement are available here: Life after the Loss Mortality in mothers Parents religious spiritual beliefs practices changes and needs after pregnancy or neonatal loss A Danish cross sectional study Stillbirth – transitions and rituals Unit for Loss
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Raising the bar: development of a perinatal bereavement programme
- Chantal Verdon and Francine deMontigny. Experiences of Nurses Who Support Parents During Perinatal Death. May 2021
- Popoola, T.; Skinner, J.; Woods, M. Exploring the Social Networks of Women Bereaved by Stillbirth: A Descriptive Qualitative Study. J. Pers. Med. 2021, 11, 1056. https://doi.org/10.3390/jpm11111056
- 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 [email protected] 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
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:
Books for Purchase (Disclaimer: ISA does not actively promote the sale of any products and does not benefit from any sales)