Today marks the start of Baby Loss Awareness week which is in its 22^nd year and runs from 9-15 October 2025 ending with a “Wave of Light”, which sees social media flooded with images of candles and lights in memory of babies who were taken too soon.

Pregnancy loss has traditionally been an underdiscussed area meaning that families experiencing it often felt very isolated and alone. Over the last few years there has been an increase in the number of high profile people speaking out about their experiences such as Michelle Obama, Dame Laura Kenny and Olympian Rebecca Addlington. Their experiences have helped to not only raise awareness but also to seek to acknowledge and normalise that losing a child before birth has a significant impact on families.

There is also starting to be change in the statutory landscape in this area. 2024 saw the introduction of Baby Loss Certificates where bereaved parents who lose a baby before 24 weeks can receive a certificate in recognition of their loss, seeking to address the feeling had by many families that a loss before 24 weeks was something which was deemed insignificant.   

Following on from this, the Employment Rights Bill 2025 introduced a new right to miscarriage bereavement leave for parents who experience a pregnancy loss before 24 weeks and, while the details of this are yet to be clarified, it is an indication that things are moving in the right direction to acknowledge that the impact of losing a child is felt no matter what stage of pregnancy a family has reached. 

While a more open approach to discussing baby loss is, of course, welcomed a large part of any discussion on this topic is how such losses can be prevented.

As part of this year’s Baby Loss Awareness Week, Birmingham Woman’s Hospital are joining with the University of Birmingham and Tommy’s National Centre for Miscarriage research to hold an event dedicated to raising awareness of baby loss and allowing attendees the opportunity to share their stories and come together.

The event is being held at The Exchange in Centenary Square and will start at 6pm with a candle painting session, and then seven candles will be lit as part of the Wave of Light. The evening will move on to a chaired panel discussion bringing together researchers, clinicians, families and community leaders to discuss the “Graded Model of Care” which is a new approach developed by Tommy’s and the University of Birmingham to offer support from the first miscarriage, including mental health care, early testing and continuity of care in future pregnancies. 

The Graded Model of Care has been trialled by the Tommy’s team at Birmingham Women’s Hospital and was recommended as a key proposal in the Government’s Pregnancy Loss review which was published in July 2023. The model looks to try to standardise care so that families can access care and support without having to wait until they have had three miscarriages, making support individual to the needs of the family, providing mental health support and compassionate care.

While it often feels like progress in the area of baby loss is slow as we can see from the introduction of the baby loss certificates and the change in employment rights we are beginning to see a greater recognition of the impact on families and the more that people engage with events such as Baby Loss Awareness hopefully the faster change will come.

For further details about the event click here.