The Sands Diabetes Project is working to improve care for people whose pregnancies are affected by diabetes. We are listening to bereaved parents, healthcare professionals and diabetes experts to understand what is working well, where care needs to improve, and how more pregnancy losses and baby deaths could be prevented.
At Sands we believe that change happens when you listen deeply to lived experience, and use those experiences, with evidence and research, to challenge practice and turn grief into action.
Clea Harmer, Sands CEO
What we learn will feed into a public report in 2027, and a stakeholder event where professionals will come together with bereaved parents to help drive change. Together, they will discuss the biggest challenges in this area of care and – importantly – make a plan for improvement.
Once we know what needs to change, we can work together to support safer and more positive pregnancy experiences, and reduce pregnancy loss and baby deaths.
How can I take part and share my experience?
Bereaved parents
Focus groups
The focus groups are for bereaved parents who have experienced pregnancy loss or the death of a baby following a pregnancy affected by diabetes in the UK since 2021.
The focus groups are planned for:
- 4 November 12-1
- 11 November 12-1
- 19 November 11-12.00
Please complete this form if:
- You would like more information about the focus groups.
- You cannot make these times and would like to discuss other ways to share your experience.
Once we have your form, one of our research team will be in touch.
The focus groups may fill up quickly – we need to keep them quite small so that everyone has a chance to talk. If you are unable to join a focus group because they are already full or the dates don’t work for you, you can still share your views and experiences in an online survey.
Online survey
If you would prefer to write about your thoughts and experiences, you can go directly to this online survey.
Healthcare professionals
If you work in healthcare and have been involved in caring for pregnant women and birthing people with diabetes in the UK since 2021, you can share your thoughts and experiences in this survey. We would like to hear from healthcare professionals from all areas of diabetes care (including pre-conception and postnatal) and with different levels of experience and expertise. We welcome responses from student and trainee healthcare professionals.
Other professionals and stakeholders
If you work in diabetes care, research, policy or as a community advocate, and would like to support this work, please email Julia at research@sands.org.uk.
What will the focus groups for bereaved parents involve?
The groups will be online via Zoom and there will be up to eight parents in each group.
We will be discussing what was good about your care and how you think diabetes care during or linked to pregnancy could be improved.
Focus groups will be recorded so we can have notes of what is said. The discussions and interviews will be completely confidential, and any information that might identify who you are will be removed or will not be published in any reports.
To acknowledge contributions, we are offering a £25 supermarket gift voucher to parents who take part in a focus group.
We know that it can be hard to talk about the time around your baby’s death. Support will be available during and after the focus groups, and you can step away or stop at any point.
Why diabetes care in pregnancy needs to improve
Evidence shows that rates of pregnancy loss and baby deaths are higher in pregnancies affected by diabetes, and that diabetes in pregnancy is increasing.
Evidence also shows there are inequalities in experiences and outcomes linked to diabetes in pregnancy.
We know that with the right screening and care, risks can be reduced and babies’ lives saved.
There is a national programme (called MBRRACE) that collects hospital data about baby deaths in the UK to help improve care for mothers and babies. An MBRRACE confidential enquiry is due to be published in the summer of 2027. This enquiry is looking at the clinical care where a baby or babies have died following a pregnancy affected by diabetes.
Sands’ report from the Diabetes Project will be published at the same time as the MBRRACE confidential enquiry. This will ensure that the voices of bereaved parents and healthcare staff are heard alongside learning from clinical records.
Combined, the two reports will provide powerful evidence of where improvements are needed.
How the project will improve diabetes care in pregnancy
Our findings will be shared with a wide audience, including policy makers and maternity professionals. They will feed into our work across research, education and policy at Sands.
We will make sure the key messages from this work are heard by those with the power to make change.
At the stakeholder meeting in 2027, we will agree what needs to happen to drive improvements in this area and ask stakeholders to take forward actions linked to their own areas of work.
By working collaboratively, we will turn learning into action - to drive safer and more positive pregnancy experiences and reduce pregnancy loss and baby deaths.
To find out more about how we use insights from bereaved parents and research to drive change, look at our horizon scanning project focused on improving how we talk about babies' movements in pregnancy.
Contact the Sands Diabetes Project team
If you would like to talk to us about this work, please email us on research@sands.org.uk and we will be in touch.
More reading and useful information
Diabetes UK aims to create a world where diabetes can do no harm, and everyone affected by diabetes gets the support and care they need. Find out more about diabetes and pregnancy: https://www.diabetes.org.uk/
Health Improvement Scotland (2024) SIGN171 Management of diabetes in pregnancy
National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (2015, updated 2020). Diabetes in pregnancy: management from preconception to the postnatal period
NHS England Digital National Pregnancy in Diabetes Audit 2021 and 2022
NHS England Digital National Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (GDM) Audit, 2024-25
Royal College of Midwives (2023) Northern Ireland State of Maternity Services Report
Sánchez-Soriano C, McLennan N, White SL, Sukumar N, Saravanan P, Lindsay RS, et al. (2026). Incidence of gestational diabetes and inequalities in adverse pregnancy outcomes in England: contemporary, cross sectional observational study of 2.7 million births. BMJ Medicine.
Stacey T, Tennant PWG, McCowan LME, Mitchell EA, Budd J, Li M, Thompson JMD, Martin B, Roberts D, Heazell AEP (2019). Gestational diabetes and the risk of late stillbirth: a case–control study from England, UK. BJOG.