Day six of Baby Loss Awareness Week: looking after each other as a community

14 Oct Day six of Baby Loss Awareness Week: looking after each other as a community

Pregnancy and baby loss can turn a person’s world upside down. In the time that follows, the support that someone has around them makes all the difference to their wellbeing as they adjust to a new normal.  

Communities come in all shapes and sizes – yours might be your friendship circle, your neighbours, your work colleagues, or a group with a shared interest. Your community can be what you make it. At its heart, a community helps people to feel a sense of belonging. After loss, you may not find that sense of belonging in your usual places; it is important to recognise that what we need and want from our various communities can change over time. It is important to recognise that what we need and want from various communities can also change over time.  

While communities can offer much comfort, there can also be challenges. There may be silence around pregnancy and baby loss, expectations of how to be and what to do, or a sense that people just don’t understand. These can change how you experience being in a community and make a person feel very alone. 

This Baby Loss Awareness Week, we would like to start conversations in communities about wellbeing after pregnancy and baby loss. We hope to break down the barriers so that anyone affected by pregnancy and baby loss can find a space where they feel they belong, lean on those around them, and be as open as they wish about what they need for their wellbeing. We will be talking about different types of communities and how they can help. We will also discuss how communities can encourage a spirit of support for those experiencing pregnancy and baby loss.  

We can all help to make our communities a welcoming space in which to nurture wellbeing after we or someone we love is affected by pregnancy and baby loss. Please do join in the conversation using #BLAW and #BLAW2021. 

Each day during the Week we’ll be sharing the stories of people who’ve found different ways to look after their wellbeing. Today we’re sharing Rowan’s story.