Compassionate culture | How to support staff going through baby loss

Bereavement is not an issue that is widely discussed in the workplace; colleagues fear discussing the matter could cause upset, while some line managers may not have been equipped with the necessary skills to provide support.

As such, grief can be considered a taboo subject in the workplace. This is also the case for baby loss as well. For example, a 2018 survey by Sands which surveyed 2,500 bereaved parents discovered that two in five stated no one talked to them about the loss of their baby.

Of those surveyed, just one in five were offered or given support by their employer on their return to work. Elsewhere, research on behalf of Co-op Funeralcare in 2018 found that over half of adults felt pressured to return to work after experiencing a loss. 30% added that they needed more than two weeks off before they felt ready to return.

Estimations suggest that one in four pregnancies end in miscarriage, which equates to approximately 250,000 every year in the UK, and a recent study by the Miscarriage Association found that many women who lost their babies did not feel comfortable speaking to their managers about it, adding that the issue was rarely raised in the workplace.