Reflection garden opens at Birmingham hospital for parents experiencing baby loss
It comes as we mark Baby Loss Awareness Week.
Last updated 16th Oct 2022
A reflection garden has opened at Heartlands Hospital as a safe space for families who are experiencing baby loss.
The garden is part of the Eden Bereavement Suite, which cares for parents and their families who sadly lose their baby through miscarriage, stillbirth or neonatal death.
The unit provides a peaceful and private environment for parents in their time of need.
The Eden Suite has been designed to provide as much privacy as possible for women and their partners, with individual ensuite rooms and a quiet garden for parents to be outside and reflect.
The renovation of the garden was funded by donations to University Hospitals Birmingham Charity in the region of £25,000.
Claire Beesley, a bereavement midwife at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, helped open the newly refurbished garden. She said: "It is absolutely beautiful and really does provide that safe space for families to think through how they are feeling, and just reflect."
Nicola Klein is a peer support worker at the Trust, and experienced first-hand the support offered at the Eden Suite. She said the garden will make a big difference to parents: "It's going to help them in many ways, it provides a space while they're here and when they've gone.
"It gives them an opportunity to bring their family to meet their baby if they're here, it gives them an opportunity to come out into the fresh air and to reflect."
The newly refurbished garden has been unveiled as we mark Baby Loss Awareness Week.
13 babies die in the UK each day through miscarriage, still birth, pregnancy complications and neo-natal death.
There are organisations and resources available where you can get support if you've been affected by the issues raised in this article.
The Baby Loss Awareness Alliance has links to national and local services.