Supporting families: Baby Loss Awareness Week 2025

In this briefing, senior associate Amy Anderson reflects on the profound impact of baby loss and the support families may need.

Many of our clients deal with the devastating impact of baby loss. In our role as lawyers, we support our clients through and beyond their loss and, if appropriate, we seek support and compensation in recognition of negligence.

If their baby’s death could have been avoided, families tend to look for reassurance that lessons have been learned so that no other parents have to suffer the same loss. We seek answers on behalf of our clients in order to find out what happened and why.

Baby Loss Awareness Week happens once per year and is marked on the final day by the lighting of a candle at 7pm in commemoration of every baby who has died in a global ‘wave of light’ - a small yet powerful gesture to honour and remember the lives lost.

Talking about pregnancy and baby loss is important for many reasons. Not only can it provide a source of comfort to people navigating similar experiences, campaigning can lead to change, including improvements in maternity care as well as better bereavement rights for the community. It is encouraging to recognise the various ways in which steps are being taken to improve the rights of those affected by baby loss. These small steps have a significant impact in acknowledging a life that should have been.

Last year (in February 2024), the Government announced the long-overdue expansion of its 'baby loss certificate' scheme, which now enables more bereaved parents to request a certificate formally recognising the loss of their baby.

Certificates are now available to parents who have lost their baby before 24 weeks of pregnancy (or 28 weeks if the pregnancy ended before 1 October 1992). Previously, certificates were only available to those who had experienced baby loss since 1 September 2018.

Removing the cut-off date for baby loss certificates is a positive step towards improving bereavement rights for bereaved families navigating the heartbreak of losing a baby.

In July 2025, the government announced a new amendment to the Employment Rights Bill, expanding the reach of statutory ‘parental bereavement leave’.

Previously, statutory leave had only been available to parents who lost a child under the age of 18 or who had experienced stillbirth after 24 weeks of pregnancy.

This compassionate change in the law now extends the right of bereavement leave to those who experience pregnancy loss before 24 weeks, recognising that grief following pregnancy loss can be ‘just as profound’ regardless of when it happens.

Amy Anderson is a senior associate in the personal injury and medical negligence team. She regularly handles claims against hospital trusts, GPs, private clinicians and other healthcare providers and has a special interest in birth injury and maternal damage claims.