Sunderland charity invites people to wave of light ceremony at Souter Lighthouse
Families are gathering to commemorate the babies who have died too soon.
Sunderland charity 4Louis are encouraging people to light a candle tonight to remember the tiny lives lost in pregnancy or shortly after birth.
The wave of light ceremony is taking place at Souter Lighthouse in Whitburn this evening.
It is a moment for families to reflect and unite, remembering their much-loved babies.
Alex Charlton is from Washington and shares her baby loss story with us. Her daughter Abigail was stillborn 11-years ago.
Alex said: "Abigail, we found out it was a girl, was a pretty large baby. She was full term, so it caused a few complications where some heavy bleeding started, and it was all a little bit of a rush. Probably lots of people have experienced that at normal birth, but on top of that was the trauma of knowing that you weren't going to hear a cry at the end of it.
"Coming home was a bit of a strange experience. We just wanted to be alone. Didn't really want to share that experience with people. It wasn't the greatest news, but obviously there was friends, family around us who wanted to help.
"It is difficult to just randomly introduce when questions such as how many children have you got pop up. You're desperate to say three sometimes, but it's like oh I'd have to explain, and will it make them feel awkward? Will they know what to say? Will they not? Would it even trigger something for them? You never know.
"You don't want to make other people feel uncomfortable, which is a little bit crazy. You certainly have days where you don't want to talk about it at all. So, we certainly kept ourselves away from things because that was our way of dealing with it. We had relatives, our closest friends around us, having babies that were due at the same time, and it was really difficult to deal with.
"As sad as it is, I think when you can share the experience, it makes you feel slightly better that you're not the only person going through it or you're not the only person punished with something so horrendous happening. The wave of light is a real time to celebrate the life that they could have."
If you have been impacted and need support, contact the 4louis charity.