A Wave of Light for Baby Loss Awareness Week

Babies who were stillborn or died in early infancy will be commemorated around the world, in a touching act of remembrance.

Wave of Light vigils will take place on Monday October 15 to mark International Pregnancy Loss and Infant Loss Day. It will be the culmination of host of events marking Baby Loss Awareness Week across the UK, this week.

A coalition of more than 60 charities Baby Loss Awareness Week. They are encouraging people to wear a pink and blue baby-loss awareness badge in a gesture of remembrance and support.

Throughout Baby Loss Awareness Week, people are being supported to talk about baby-loss and the child death and celebrate the memory of their baby’s life. You can join the conversation on social media with the hashtag #BLAW2018.

More than 50 landmarks across the UK are being lit up with pink and blue lights to mark Baby Loss Awareness Week from today.

Cardiff and Belfast City Halls, Blackpool Tower and Coventry Cathedral are among the many shining a light on the campaign to prevent baby loss, support families who are bereaved, and remember precious lives that are grieved.

A short animated video for sharing has also been launched, to give people a greater understanding of the emotions grieving parents can go through. It could also help people feel less afraid to acknowledge someone else’s loss, reach out and talk about miscarriage

Baby Loss Awareness Week 2018 has launched with a national roll-out of the Bereavement Care Pathway. In a parliamentary debate on baby-loss MPs supported charities' call for NHS trusts to adopt their blueprint for care, developed to support bereaved parents who face leaving hospital without their baby, after a miscarriage or stillbirth.

Stillbirth and neonatal death charity Sands, which recently launched a groundbreaking app supporting and informing parents who have lost a baby, is also inviting people to share their own experience of baby-loss how empathetic care in a clinical setting made a difference in heartbreaking circumstances.

On International Pregnancy Loss and Infant Loss Day, people will lighting candles in private, family and group vigils around the world. Beginning at 7pm local time on October 15, they will be creating an International Wave of Light in memory of their babies.

Those lighting candles or battery-operated tealights are asked to keep them lit for an hour, to keep the Wave of Light illuminated across international time zones. The Wave of Light will also be happening across social media, with photos and messages being shared with the hashtag #WaveOfLight.