Saving babies' lives. Supporting bereaved families.
Currently, every day in the UK, 13 babies die shortly before, during or soon after birth. At least 1 in 6 of pregnancies end in miscarriage. Thousands of parents and families are experiencing the heartbreak of pregnancy and baby loss every year.
Too often, we don’t understand why.
That’s why we need to take action. Now.
Together, we are Sands.
Here to support everyone touched by pregnancy or baby loss. Always.
We are the parents who remember every baby.
The dedicated volunteers, befrienders and staff team offering support, compassion and understanding online and in communities.
The researchers finding the answers.
Healthcare professionals and campaigners working together to improve maternity safety and bereavement care.
Friends, family and supporters who stand alongside us.
Sands is the UK’s leading pregnancy and baby loss charity, connecting communities across all four nations through support and action.
We are doing everything within our combined power to inspire change and prevent babies from dying. Our voices turn understanding into action – saving babies’ lives and improving maternity safety and bereavement care through research, training and campaigning.
Let’s speak up about baby loss and save babies’ lives. For babies everywhere.
The start of the Sands community
In 1978, a group of bereaved parents came together - to support each other and unite for better maternity and bereavement care. They knew it was vital that parents’ voices were heard, and listened to, for change to happen. Since then, Sands has grown. And the community they built - rooted in compassion and a drive for change - still connects and inspires us today.
More about us
We are made up of staff and volunteers who work together across Scotland, Wales, England and Northern Ireland to ensure that anyone touched by pregnancy or baby loss has access to support.
Our specialist bereavement support team offers compassionate, trauma-informed, one-to-one and group support, through bereavement support online, by phone and email. Whilst our trained volunteers deliver in-person peer support in local communities through our network of over 130 local groups and Sands United football teams. Together, each year, we host family and remembrance events, providing community and connection. And we provide digital and physical bereavement resources such as memory boxes.
We save babies' lives by amplifying the voices of bereaved families and healthcare professionals, campaigning for change in policy and practice.
Through our training, every year we support thousands of professionals to access our accredited courses, developed using evidence from parents, health professionals and researchers on how to safely support families when a baby dies and what can be done to save babies' lives in the future.
And we’re building a research network, with parent voice at its heart, to prioritise and support the studies we know will make the most difference. We share our expertise and collaborate, so funding proposals have the best chance of success.