A policy research unit based at Oxford University would like to trial a survey of bereaved parents before launching the survey nationally this autumn.

The National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit (NPEU) at Oxford University, together with Sands and Bliss, the baby charity, have been developing an important national survey over the past year, aiming to collect parents’ views of their care in hospital both before and after their baby died. It is the first time a national survey of this nature has been launched, and it will help inform and improve care for parents in the future.

The researchers are now keen to capture individual parent responses to the survey. This process will help researchers refine the survey further to ensure that it reads clearly and gives as much room as possible for parents to feed back their experiences. Maggie Redshaw and Rachel Rowe from the NPEU are looking for parents whose baby was stillborn or died neonatally in the past 6 months to around 2 years ago, who might be prepared to go through the survey with them either over the telephone or in person (for face-to-face interviews, parents would have to be located within a day’s return travel from Oxford).

If anyone does feel able to do this, this leaflet explains the survey further. The email address on the leaflet is not yet live, but Rachel Rowe can be contacted at rachel.rowe@npeu.ox.ac.uk or on telephone number 01865 289713.

With many thanks for your support.