Improving care

One of Sands' core aims is to work in partnership with health professionals to improve the quality of care that is offered to parents who have a pregnancy loss, a stillbirth or a neonatal death.

Sands is working to improve the care of babies and parents:

during pregnancy
when a problem is recognised
when a baby has died
above all we want to ensure that as few babies as possible die and that parents are spared the pain and grief which follows a baby's death.

Care when a baby dies

The care that parents receive around the time of a loss has a huge impact on their perception of what happened and on their ability to cope.

Good care cannot remove the pain and devastation that the loss of a pregnancy or the death of a baby can bring, but insensitivity and lack of good care can and do make things worse.

Health care staff can do a great deal to ensure that the memories that parents take away with them are as positive as possible. However, many staff get little or no training on how to support and care for grieving parents and are likely to feel unprepared for this sensitive and challenging aspect of their work.

This section of the Sands website offers information and resources for health care staff.