Every day in the UK, 17 babies are stillborn or die shortly after birth. Sands believes that many of these deaths are preventable, and that this level of baby loss is completely unacceptable.  

Our Why17? campaign was launched to raise awareness of the issues surrounding baby loss and to initiate a public debate about stillbirth and neonatal death. Ultimately, our aim is to work with key parties to develop a national strategy to reduce the rates of baby loss.  

We launched the Saving Babies' Lives report in Westminster and to all the devolved governments in 2009, and in early 2012 we returned to Westminster to launch our Preventing Babies' Deaths report.

As a result of these reports and ongoing lobbying, we are now pleased to be working closely with the Department of Health in England, and the Scottish and Welsh governments, to develop stillbirth awareness and prevention strategies. We publish a campaigning news update twice annually - Spotlight on Sands - that outlines all our recent news, but if you have a specific question or would like to find out more about our current campaigns, please email campaigns@uk-sands.org.

• to ensure that resources are sufficiently allocated to better support those parents who suffer the loss of a baby
• to see improvements in maternity services to reduce the unnecessary loss of babies’ lives
• a comprehensive review of all stillbirths and neonatal deaths so that we can learn what went wrong and change practice accordingly
• increased funding for research into the prevention of stillbirths and neonatal deaths

For more information on our current campaigning priorities, click here.