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The team at Sands are working hard to support bereaved parents and health care staff through this challenging time. Our support services are available for anyone who needs emotional support or practical guidance on how to provide bereavement care:
Freephone helpline: 0808 164 3332
Email helpline: helpline@sands.org.uk
Sands memory box provides a place for parents and families to create and keep memories of their beloved baby. Our memory boxes are free of charge and can be ordered here.
The NBCP materials provide specific guidance for anyone working with families experiencing Miscarriage, Termination of Pregnancy due to Fetal Anomaly, Stillbirth, Neonatal Death and Sudden and Unexpected Death in Infancy.
Scotland: nbcpscotland.org.uk
England: nbcpathway.org.uk
NBCP E-learning: nbcpathway.org.uk/professionals/training-healthcare-professionals
The NBCP E-Learning module is hosted by NHS Health Education England. E-learning for Scotland will be developed, in the meantime staff working in all nations can access the England modules by registering with NHS Health Education England using their NHS work email.
The National Bereavement Care Pathway (NBCP) is being implemented in England and piloted in Scotland to ensure that all bereaved families have access to high quality, sensitive and family centred care, regardless of circumstance, gestation or postcode. However, the response to COVID-19 is having an impact on bereavement care across the UK.
Social distancing, restricted NHS resources and potential staff redeployment are having varying degrees of impact on the ability of Trusts and Boards to deliver the nine bereavement care standards. We expect that bereavement care in maternity and neonatal services will vary over coming months.
Sands fully supports the NHS and its dedicated staff. We also know from listening to parents that core elements of bereavement care can be maintained when a baby dies during the COVID-19 pandemic. Sands recognises that a more streamlined approach to bereavement care may be required to take into account the current constraints in the NHS.
The minimum level of bereavement care families need is:
1. Compassionate care
2. Excellent communication
3. Trained and supported staff
As with the post mortem and hospital reviews, other investigations and reviews may be delayed in the current crisis. Your health care team should keep you informed about everything that is being done to understand your baby’s death, and what you can expect.
We hope this guide has been helpful and once again would like to express our sincere condolences at this immensely distressing time. Sands is here to support you and we would love to hear from you if you feel we can be of help.
As a bereaved parent, you should be told by your hospital that a review is going to take place and be offered the opportunity to ask questions or provide information about your care for the review panel consider.
During this pandemic, with pressures on staffing, it is likely that some reviews may not happen as soon after a death as would be ideal. If you have not been informed about progress with reviewing your baby’s care, you can ask your health carers about it. You might think about noting down anything about your care that you want to remember while it is fresh in your mind, to share when the review does take place.
A post mortem (also called an autopsy) is the medical examination to help understand any factors that might have contributed to your baby’s death. There is more information about how and when this might happen on the Sands website here.
During the coronavirus pandemic, how and when these examination take place may change. Please speak to healthcare staff supporting you about changes that will affect you. There may be a longer wait for the investigation to happen and it likely that there will be a longer wait for results.
A memorial service is a way of celebrating the life of a loved one who has died, and can include very personal choices that may not be available when funerals face restrictions designed to keep the public safe from covid-19 transmission. Funerals and cremations need to be held within specific timeframes, but there is no time-limit for holding memorials for loved ones.
This means that a baby’s memorial service may be planned for the months to come when the rules around public gatherings may change. This is something you may wish to think about when planning who to include in funeral arrangements while protecting vulnerable family members and friends from coronavirus. There is no time-limit for holding memorials for loved ones.
Whether you hold your baby’s memorial service now or in future, you may consider holding memorials in the following ways:
During this time, while you are advised not to visit your baby’s grave or special place, you may want to think about using some of the ideas above to remember your baby.
Please see guidance on visiting crematoria, graves & memorials here.
The funeral you arrange for your baby can have as many personal elements as you wish but will need to consider keeping vulnerable people safe. In line with Government guidance, the National Association of Funeral Directors recommends that funeral services consider limiting attendees to members of the immediate family who are not in any of the high-risk categories and are not self-isolating. The immediate family for you baby’s funeral would be:
Limiting attendees must be done sensitively and take account of individual circumstances. This may mean that a baby’s parents can be consulted on the people whom they feel are closest to them when saying goodbye to their baby and suitable arrangements can be made. Webcasts may be available at a cost for those not attending.
While this will be a very difficult time and you may find it challenging to think of details, we suggest you recruit help from your family to observe other practical arrangements at your baby’s funeral that would avoid the spread of COVID-19:
Whether to hold a cremation or burial for your baby has, to date, been a family’s choice. The Coronavirus Act active from March 2020 suggests new guidance around what may happen when cremations take place. This will mean that you may have different conversations around cremation or burial with your hospital or funeral director:
The government is committed to ‘managing the deceased with respect and dignity’, but in the event of increased pressure may have to direct others not involved in the funeral sector to manage services and preserve public health. This may mean your baby’s journey to a final resting place will be different to what you know of the procedures if you have arranged funerals before. Having said this, your wishes will be heard so that these new procedures bring you as much comfort as possible.
Discussions in Parliament have aimed to protect the interests of faith groups who would not normally opt for cremation. The aim to protect the wishes of the deceased is a key concern for legislators managing the coronavirus crisis and will be an important conversation to have when making arrangements that enable you to say goodbye.
At Sands, we are here to support you and would like to remind you of the options to discuss your concerns with our trained staff via our Helpline, email.