This is Baby Loss Awareness Week. To lose a baby during pregnancy or childbirth can be an incredibly traumatic experience and one that can be hard for people who have experienced it to talk about, even with the people closest to them.
But ELFT provides support for women and birthing people in east London and Bedfordshire.
A weekly in-person therapeutic group facilitated and led by East London NHS Foundation Trust Clinical Psychologist Dr. Rachel Master is starting on 25th October in Bethnal Green. You can download the flyer here.
The group is free to attend and is for anyone that has experienced a miscarriage or loss of a baby during pregnancy or childbirth.
For location, dates & times, download the OCEAN East London Group leaflet here.
At this stage, we are unable to make this offer to husbands, partners or family members who have experienced the trauma of birth loss, but we hope this will change in the future.
Explaining what she hopes the therapeutic group can achieve, Dr Master said:
"The experience of loss during or after pregnancy is devastating.
Often people that have gone through this find it difficult to talk about, and sometimes suffer in silence out of fear of other's reactions.
"Sometimes this is because the person who has experienced the loss has a misplaced fear that their raw emotions and pain is a burden on the people they love the most. Baby loss and miscarriages have historically been a taboo and still is for many. Many people are stuck with unprocessed and confusing feelings that can have far reaching impacts on their mental health and relationships.
"But the east London Baby Loss Therapy Group is a place people can come together, talk openly about their feelings and experience, make new friends with others that have shared experiences and build on or even discover healthy ways of coping.
"Everyone is welcome, and if English isn't your first language, we can find ways to make sure you can fully take part and be a fully engaged member of the group."
All Year Round Support for People who have experienced Birth Trauma or Birth Loss in East London & Bedfordshire
The East London and Bedfordshire OCEAN services (Offering Compassionate Emotional Support for those Living Through Birth Trauma & Birth Loss) are integrated maternity and mental health service providing support for those affected by birth loss or birth trauma.
The east London service is for people who live or work in the London boroughs of City & Hackney, Newham and Tower Hamlets and is provided by East London NHS Foundation Trust (ELFT) in partnership with Barts Health NHS Trust, Homerton University Hospital Foundation Trust (HUHFT) and Maternity Mates.
Click here to learn more about the east London OCEAN service
Click her to learn more about the Bedfordshire & Luton OCEAN service.
The Bedfordshire and Luton Service is operated in partnership with Bedford Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
Both OCEAN Services provides specialist psychological treatment, care and support to those who have experienced a birth trauma and/or loss, targeted assessment and therapeutic care.