News & Events

A huge thank you to the Co-op Community Fund, and to all of you who have supported us through this - we are so excited to have raised £2,550 to support Reflect!! Your support will mean we can continue to provide our free support service to anyone facing a Pregnancy Choice or dealing with a Pregnancy Loss.

With an estimated one in four pregnancies ending in miscarriage, you are almost guaranteed to have close friends or family who have suffered a pregnancy loss. We have a tradition of keeping a pregnancy a secret until we hit the 12 week mark, where the risk of miscarriage significantly drops. This can leave families secretly grieving a loss that those closest to them know nothing about.

I know from experience that this can be a painfully dark time. The excitement that you feel on discovering you are pregnant almost implodes as the feelings of loss take hold. No matter what stage of your pregnancy journey you are at, the loss of the hopes and dreams that you start to imagine for your little one takeover and the grief can be immense. Add in the additional cocktail of emotions ranging from guilt to anger to shame and it can feel so overwhelming, like a black cloud that you are sure will stay with you forever. 

Please do not grieve in silence. Speak out to whoever you feel comfortable with, be it friends or family or alternatively, speak to somebody professionally. We can support each other through this if we shift the secrecy around baby loss to allow those experiencing it to speak out without embarrassment. Help is available and can be invaluable. 

Baby Loss Awareness Week runs annually from 9 to 15 October. Its aim is to amplify the voices of those who have suffered losses, to raise awareness around baby loss and to unite families in remembrance of those babies gone too soon. 

If you are North Yorkshire based and dealing with a baby loss, no matter whether it was recent or long ago, and it is affecting you in some way, please do reach out to Reflect Pregnancy Support  Reflect provides a free, fully confidential and safe space for women and their partners to explore their feelings around a loss in a guided way. Their sessions are currently being run online or over the phone.

If you want to get involved and support Baby Loss Awareness Week, there are numerous ways. Here are a few ideas:

Support your local pregnancy loss support charity. 

Join the global Wave of Light at 7pm on 15 October. Light a candle and leave it burning for at least an hour to remember those babies who have gone too soon #WaveofLight

Buy a pink and blue ribbon pin in support of Sands, the Stillbirth and neonatal death charity and wear it to show your support.

Raise awareness about Baby Loss Awareness Week on social media by changing your profile picture to pink and blue, add the ribbon or use the hashtag #BLAW2020.

Author: Becky Shepherd, Reflect Volunteer

Reflect will be hosting a virtual Wave of Light Event on Thursday 15 October at 7pm, to raise awareness of pregnancy and baby loss in North Yorkshire during Baby Loss Awareness Week (9th to 15th October). Please join us in supporting this.

The annual awareness week, now in its 18^th year, is an opportunity for bereaved parents, families and friends, to commemorate babies’ lives and to raise awareness about pregnancy and baby loss to drive for the improvements that are needed for parents and families now and in the future. As a member of the Baby Loss Awareness Alliance Reflect will be hosting a virtual Wave of Light Event on Thursday 15 October at 7pm.

We hope that Baby Loss Awareness Week will spark conversations about baby loss and give local bereaved parents and families an opportunity to talk about their precious babies. For some people COVID-19 has meant that they have felt more isolated in their loss, and for others the slowdown has caused the past pain of loss to surface, which they may now need to process.

You can get involved and support this by turning your home or your work place pink and blue, by wearing a pink and blue pin, or by taking part in the Global Wave of Light.  Key landmarks across the UK will be lit up pink and blue, and virtual services held.

You can take part in the virtual Wave of Light by lighting a candle at 7pm on Thursday 15 October in memory of all babies gone too soon. Take a photo of your candle and post it using the hashtag #WaveOfLight, and join Reflect on facebook.com/ReflectSupport/ or instagram.com/reflect.support for a short virtual Wave of Light event.  

At Reflect we have been running 100% of our specialist support service remotely since lockdown began in March.

The feedback has been very positive – 100% of clients who have completed our feedback form say that they would recommend our service to a friend/relative. We are pleased to have been able to keep supporting our clients to such a high standard.

With that in mind, and following a recent Trustee’s meeting where the trustees have considered current advice and having weighed up the risks, the decision is for Reflect to continue to offer remote support only (telephone or video calls) until, at least, November.

The health and well-being of our clients and volunteers is our absolute priority and we will continue to follow government and medical guidelines to maintain safety for all, and will continue to review the support that we offer. Our aim is to be able to, as safely as possible, return to face to face support in the future.

Please do contact us if you are need of our support - our services remain fully open via telephone, email and video support.

Due to Coronavirus and the most recent Government advice, we are no longer able to see clients face to face. However, we are able to offer Skype appointments and telephone support to clients during this time.

Please do contact Reflect if you need our help and support in the coming days and weeks and we will do our best to support you.