Ed & Dave are running the Edinburgh Marathon in May 2024!

We would love your support in raising as much money as possible for the NGH Daisy Suite Appeal to enable them to create a dedicated and private space to provide emotional & practical care to families who experience baby loss.

Ed & Tash

"Back in March 2021 when we were 20 weeks pregnant with our first baby, a routine scan identified a problem with our baby's heart. We were referred to Oxford and after more scans, were told our baby had a CHD called Tricuspid Artresia. TFMR was recommended and at just over 22 weeks pregnant, we sadly lost our baby girl.

In those two & a half weeks from first finding out about our baby's heart defect and realising we were going to lose her, all of our appointments were in the maternity day unit.

We cannot begin to describe the distress this caused. Having to repeatedly sit in a room full of excited pregnant women, knowing you're losing your baby was just horrific.

The support we received from Rachel & Rachael was invaluable and thank you will never be enough. Although they are a team you never want to be referred to, we felt incredibly lucky to have them and will never forget all they did for us. They not only supported us through the loss of our first baby, they continued their support during our second pregnancy with our now nearly 2 year old Thomas.

We've wanted to support the Daisy Suite Appeal ever since but needed to wait until we both felt emotionally ready to share our story."

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At present, bereaved parents often return to the maternity day unit and the wards area for follow up appointments and aftercare, a place where they were first supported following the distressing, heart-breaking news about their baby. You can perhaps imagine how upsetting this can be, adding to the overwhelming sense of sadness and loss families are feeling.

This appeal is for a designated base for the bereavement midwives within the maternity ward at Northampton General Hospital as they currently are based elsewhere in the hospital. This move and designated bereavement area will enhance the services they are able to offer families following a loss.

The suite will provide two quiet/counselling service rooms where families will be able to come for counselling and spend time with their baby that has died after leaving the Snowdrop room on the labour ward. The rooms will also be used for follow up appointments.

There will also be a small kitchen area where refreshments can be made for distressed parents and have a storage area for patient records and equipment such as memory boxes and other mementoes/knitted donations that are given to families following a loss.

The suite will have a massive impact on our patients. For bereaved families to be able to return to an area that is designated for bereaved families only will not cause additional distress, as is currently the case. Families at present are required to return to their follow up appointments in an area where pregnant women are attending their appointments too. The area they currently attend is also very busy and this new designated area will also allow for quiet contemplation and open discussion.

Thank you so much for your kind donation.