It has been confirmed this week that bereaved parents who lose a baby before 24 weeks of pregnancy in England can now receive a certificate in recognition of their loss.
New rules
When a baby is stillborn after 24 weeks of pregnancy, their death is officially registered. However, this is not the case for babies who die before that stage.
Very sadly, pregnancy loss or miscarriage before 24 weeks is the most common complication of pregnancy and is experienced by around one in five women in the UK.
Those women and families have never been able to have any formal recognition that their baby even existed.
Until now.
Ministers say they have listened to bereaved parents who have gone through the experience of losing their baby before 24 weeks of pregnancy and introduced this new system.
The voluntary scheme is designed to formally recognise the devastating loss of a baby during pregnancy and the Government says that it delivers on priorities set out in the Women’s Health Strategy for England and on recommendations from the Pregnancy Loss Review.
From 22 February 2024, parents can make an application for a baby loss certificate to have their grief recognised.
All parents who have experienced baby loss since September 2018 can apply by visiting the Gov.uk website. Applicants must be at least 16 years of age, have been living in England at the time of the loss, and be one of the baby’s parents or surrogates.
You can find out more details about the scheme here.
It is hoped that the scheme will be extended to those who experienced pregnancy loss longer ago than September 2018.
The Government website says:
“The government is committed to ensuring bereaved parents feel supported through their grief and recognise their loss, acknowledging their pain and ensuring they feel heard. The certificates will not be compulsory – it remains the choice of all parents to manage the difficult time of a loss, however they see fit.”
Pregnancy loss review
Delivering baby loss certificates was part of the Government’s response to the independent Pregnancy Loss Review, which was commissioned in 2018.
That review concluded that while it may currently not be possible to prevent many pre-24-week pregnancy losses from occurring, much more can be done to ensure each grieving parent receives excellent care and compassionate support.
The Minister for the Women’s Health Strategy said:
“We have listened to parents who have gone through what can be an unbelievably painful experience of losing a baby, and that is why today we are introducing baby loss certificates to recognise their loss, as part of our wider long-term plan for women’s health in our country, the Women’s Health Strategy. I would like to thank the tireless work of campaigners and charities for their work in supporting this agenda and making certificates a reality.”
A welcome change
Campaigners have said they are “thrilled” that millions of families would finally be able to get formal acknowledgement that their baby existed.
Regardless of the stage of pregnancy, we are still talking about a baby that has been lost. Parents deserve to have that loss recognised formally no matter when it happened in the pregnancy.
Chief Midwifery Officer for England, Kate Brintworth, said she was pleased that women “will now be able to access a baby loss certificate which recognises the impact and importance of early pregnancy loss to them and their families.”
National Director of The Miscarriage Association, Ruth Bender Atik, said:
“For many, if not most people, even the earliest of losses can be deeply distressing, both emotionally and physically. The new certification scheme will make a genuinely positive difference to many who have experienced pregnancy or baby loss, offering formal recognition of the tiniest of lives.”
Comment
There is no doubt that the loss of a baby in pregnancy, at any stage, is devastating and immeasurably painful.
It is awful that, until now, that pain has often been made even worse for those parents who lose a baby before 24 weeks because there has been no formal recognition of their loss or their experience. No matter when the loss occurred, it is still a loss of a baby.
This new scheme is most certainly a step in the right direction of recognising all those babies lost at any stage of pregnancy, and their families.
But there is much still to be done to deliver on supporting families through baby loss. First and foremost, the rolling-out of the scheme is wider than the UK, but also extending it to cover losses before September 2018.
Further than this, the wider problem of baby loss requires more commitment from the Government to recording UK-wide miscarriage statistics. It is very much hoped that this is the start of more changes yet to come.
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Danielle Young is a Legal Director in our Medical Negligence team, which is ranked in Tier One by the independently researched publication, The Legal 500.
If you have any questions about the subjects discussed in this article, please contact Danielle or another team member in Derby, Leicester, or Nottingham on 0800 024 1976 or via our online form.
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