Baby Beat’s words of comfort
Mums and babies charity Baby Beat has spent £337.67 on a consignment of 41 new books to help support families grieving the loss of a baby.
The books include stories written to help children understand the loss of a sibling as well as titles to help parents navigate the trauma and will be gifted by the bereavement team at the Royal Preston Hospital’s Sharoe Green Maternity Unit.
Lead bereavement midwife Claire Braithwaite, who together with her colleagues supports between 60 and 100 grieving families a year, said: “I don’t think we can underestimate the impact such a simple gesture as gifting a book from the hospital can have on patients and their families.
“As bereavement midwives, we find books a valuable resource. The titles we have chosen cover many aspects of grief and loss and in the main, have been written by authors who have themselves experienced baby loss. They include books written for very young children, older children and adults.”
Joanna Allitt, fundraising manager for Baby Beat, said: “We’re very pleased to have been able to support this project with Baby Beat funds. I’m sure all of us have at some time in our lives found comfort in a book.”
Baby Beat, which is part of the Lancashire Teaching Hospitals charity family, funds specialist equipment, other patient services and comforts, clinical care, local research, additional training and staff welfare projects so that the maternity and gynaecology teams based at the Sharoe Green Maternity Unit can offer the best possible outcomes for babies and mums in the Central Lancashire and Chorley area.
Baby Beat also supports the unit’s NICU (Neo Natal Intensive Care Unit), helping to provide exceptional care for premature and sick babies and their families from across Lancashire and South Cumbria. For further information on Baby Beat’s work and how to support, visit www.babybeat.org.uk