Baby Loss Awareness Week takes place every year on 9th – 15th October. This October will mark the 20th Baby Loss Awareness Week.
Since 2002 the Baby Loss Awareness Week community has been supporting bereaved parents and families, and uniting them with others across the world to commemorate their babies’ lives and lost pregnancies.
This year we come together once more to remember all the much-loved and never forgotten babies that are carried in our hearts forever.
For some people this will be their first year, first month or first week without their baby. For others it will be many more years since their baby died.
This week aims to raise awareness about how pregnancy and baby loss affects thousands of families each year across the UK. It is also a opportunity to bring together bereaved parents, their families and friends, and anyone else who has been touched by lives lost during, at or soon after birth and in infancy.
Pregnancy and baby loss statistics
According to Tommy’s:
In the UK, it is estimated that 1 in 4 pregnancies end in loss during pregnancy or birth.
- 716,704 births were registered in 2020 (613,935 England & Wales; 46,809 Scotland; 55,959 Northern Ireland)
- There were 2,638 stillbirths in 2020 (2,371 England & Wales; 198 Scotland; 69 Northern Ireland)
- Approximately 60,000 babies were born prematurely in 2020
- An estimated 1 in 5 pregnancies ended in miscarriage (1 in 8 if we only count women who realised/reported the miscarriage)
- Estimates suggest there are 250,000 miscarriages every year in the UK, and around 11,000 emergency admissions for ectopic pregnancies
- There were 1,719 neonatal deaths in England and Wales in 2020
- 209 women died during or up to 6 weeks after pregnancy between 2015-2017 – this equates to 9.2 women per 100,000 who died due to causes associated with pregnancy during pregnancy or soon after.
