Bereavement Support with
other Charities
We work in partnership with other baby loss charities to provide bereavement support for families who have lost a baby to SIDS, stillbirth or neonatal death. This support is designed to give parents the strength they need to rebuild their lives again.
TURNING TRAGEDY INTO PURPOSE
We set up Teddy’s Wish to give hope, help and support to other grieving families and to fund research into the causes of baby loss. As a small, volunteer-run charity, we’re driven by doing something meaningful in Edward’s honour. Our vision is that in the future, there will be no more grieving parents of tiny, perfect babies. Together with your support and generosity, we believe that vision is achievable.
Support for parents in partnership
with Petals Charity
Teddy’s Wish has partnered with Petals to provide long-term psychological support to the most traumatised bereaved parents. It's hard to over-state the value of therapy, which supports and directs grieving parents through the grief cycle so that they can find hope and strength again.
The specialist counsellors at Petals support women and couples who have lost a baby, providing six free counselling sessions. If parents need extra support, up to 12 sessions may be offered.
Teddy’s Wish is jointly funding a package of a further six face-to-face or online sessions to those who suffer the most devastating and traumatic losses and require counselling support beyond 12 sessions.
These additional sessions will ensure the right level of help is given to families who need it the most. If you would like to access this support, please contact Petals directly here.
The Care of Next Infant Programme (CONI)
in partnership with The Lullaby Trust
When you've suffered the life-changing loss of a baby to SIDs, stillbirth or neonatal death, the experience of falling pregnant and giving birth to a new baby is very complex. From our own experience, we know that becoming a parent again is frightening and, emotionally, very confusing. We believe that every parent should have access to support during their next pregnancy and following birth. This support is key to reducing the anxiety that parents feel, so they can truly enjoy the first year of their baby’s life.
CONI (which is short for Care of Next Infant Programme) was set up by The Lullaby Trust and is run in partnership with the NHS. Baby safety - a safe pregnancy and safe sleeping practices once the baby is born - will be a parent's prime concern. That's why the programme supports bereaved parents before and after the birth of their baby by offering regular contact with a health visitor, movement monitors for safe sleeping, and the support of a paediatrician.
Teddy’s Wish have partnered with The Lullaby Trust to deliver free CONI Co-ordinator training to health visitors in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. We hope that this will open up this essential training to areas of the country that might not have previously been able to afford it and enable more families the vital support offered by the CONI programme.
Learn more about the CONI programme here
.png)
The National Bereavement
Care Pathway
Teddy’s Wish are really proud to be involved in the development of The National Bereavement Care Pathway (NBCP), in collaboration with Sands and other supporting charities, the Department of Health and the All Party Parliamentary Group on Baby Loss.
The NBCP helps healthcare professionals to support families in their bereavement after any pregnancy or baby loss, be that Miscarriage (including Ectopic and Molar Pregnancy), Termination of Pregnancy for Foetal Anomaly (TOPFA), Stillbirth, Neonatal Death or Sudden Unexpected Death in Infancy (SUDI).
Currently, the level of bereavement care received by parents varies greatly and is different from region to region. We want to ensure that every family experiences the same high levels of understanding, compassion and support from everyone across the healthcare and broader services community, irrespective of where that family may live.
Grief is an individual journey. The emotional turmoil and depth of anguish is too powerful to contain and whenever it surfaces, it's as crushing and painful as ever. Robust, consistent support is critical for every grieving parent. Without it, it's impossible to make those crucial tentative steps towards finding hope again.
Teddy’s Wish has funded the evaluation process of the NBCP trial across 32 NHS trusts. The results now pave the way for rolling out the NBCP nationally and all healthcare professionals can access the materials from the website here.