The Stillbirth and Neonatal Death Society, Sands Lothian, has announced Held In Our Hearts as a new name today. The new name, website and logo are part of a relaunch that aims to highlight the core function of the charity which offers baby loss counselling and support to all bereaved parents. This support now includes babies lost at any stage of pregnancy and early childhood.

Expanding services 

Held In Our Hearts also announced that it is expanding support services into Fife and Forth Valley NHS areas in response to the increasing needs of bereaved families across Scotland. In 2019 Sands Lothian provided 575 befriending and 870 counselling sessions compared to 211 befriending and 489 counselling sessions in 2016.

Increasing needs 

Nicola Welsh, Chief Executive of Held In Our Hearts, said:

“We are very excited about this next chapter in our identity announced today. We are growing as a charity and in turn our support services have expanded to meet the increasing needs of bereaved families.

“Held In Our Hearts now supports families who have experienced a loss at any stage and into early childhood and we want to ensure that these families feel included and can come to us for support.

“Held In Our Hearts is increasingly working at a national policy level and we are delighted to be expanding our specialist bereavement counselling into Fife and Forth Valley in partnership with the NHS boards, so the Lothians part of our name no longer reflects all our work.

“We recognise that this is a big change for us as a charity but we wanted to reflect who we are and the lived experience of our bereaved parents.

“We hold our own babies in our hearts, and we will continue to support bereaved families in the community in the same way and provide specialist bereavement care for them.”