My friend Jo Sleeman is fundraising for Sands, the stillbirth and neonatal death charity, and they’d really appreciate your support.

You can donate to their JustGiving page by clicking here: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/heartandsole3?utm_source=Sharethis&utm_medium=fundraising&utm_content=heartandsole3&utm_campaign=pfp-email&utm_term=6a79434f34e844a1997e279d6d839e13.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to Sands, the stillbirth and neonatal death charity, so it’s the most efficient way to give – saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

As a woman, from the moment you see that positive line on a pregnancy test, your pregnancy journey starts, the exquisite joy, making the plans and dreaming the dreams.  As midwives we are proud to support women become mothers, witnessing the precious, miraculous and life changing joy that comes with holding a new baby in your arms.  As midwives we are still there when the joy becomes sorrow and the dreams become nightmares.  Caring for women and their partners when a baby dies is both challenging and our greatest privilege.  It never gets easier.
 
The death of a baby is not a rare tragedy.  Everyday in the UK around 14 babies die before, during or soon after birth.  That means nearly every two hours a family is faced with the devastation of the death of their baby.
 
Maela, Victoria and I trained as midwives together, bonding us for life, but we had no idea what life had planned for us.  Whilst, as a specialist trauma and loss midwife I have professional experience of baby loss, both Victoria and Maela, both specialists in their own field, have personally endured the heart breaking loss of a baby. I am in awe of their ability to put one foot in front of the other, let alone return to work and continue to compassionately care for and feel joy for others becoming new parents whilst growing around their own grief.
 
So when I was asked to help organise some fundraising for SANDS how could I refuse? SANDS work tirelessly to provide support to families, training to professionals and contribute to much needed research, reducing the number of little lives lost.  So if Victoria and Maela could continue to put one foot in front of another in their darkest hours then I would do the same.  That is how we now find ourselves training for a mammoth event next year to walk continuously for 1
Categories: Miscellaneous