Navigating Mother’s Day celebrations is often extremely difficult for women and men with baby loss sorrow(s). Whether recent or long ago baby loss, in all its forms, often leaves deep, hidden hurt. Taboo still lingers making conversations difficult.
Marianne Fernandez, Baby Loss Coach, has experienced problem pregnancy, miscarriage and secondary infertility. Join her insightful, practical webinar and become equipped to “Lean In” to tricky baby loss conversations with compassion and confidence. So whenever you hear the hidden hurt of baby loss – you are ready.
Marianne Fernandez
Maternity & Baby Loss Coach
March 26th
1pm GMT; 2pm CET
Marianne is an author and speaker plus Maternity and Baby Loss Coach. She has 12 years coaching experience and, prior to that, 15 years Senior Management experience within a variety of global corporations.
It was Marianne’s own traumatic journey into parenting that led her to leave a senior role, retrain as a coach and establish OptiMums. The need for workplace support for parents who have experienced baby loss(es) is huge, with both women and men affected in significant numbers each year.
Personal experience of juggling a career whilst enduring problem pregnancy, miscarriage and secondary infertility means Marianne truly understands the landscape for those struggling in silence at work. Her empathy and her coaching support extends to those who feel post abortion sorrow and all forms of baby loss.
Often the pain from these experiences is papered over, stuffed down and hidden as we pretend we have “gotten over it”. Grief that is hidden away can lead to other health problems such as addiction, self harm, depression and physical pain. Marianne’s Talking Therapy enables clients to enter a safe, non judgemental space where they can unburden and release grief. Where loss(es) can be validated and clients can process pain and decide how to move forward.
Baby Loss occurs in many ways. The UK NHS website states 1 in 8 known pregnancies will end in miscarriage (1). UK-based charities estimated the miscarriage figure is around 250,000 lost little ones annually (2). But miscarriage is not the only source of baby loss. Infertility affects 1 in 7 heterosexual couples (3), which in the UK equates to 3.5 million people (note: data for same sex couples is not available).
During 2022 in the UK over 250,000 pregnancies were ended by the NHS via abortion (4). Terminations have now exceeded the estimated figures for miscarriage. Because post abortion sorrow is still so taboo employers might not realise that this form of baby loss is “under their roof yet under their radar”. Baby loss, in all its forms, is often unspoken, unseen yet creating absenteeism, presenteeism and being an underlying cause of illness, poor mental health and resignations.
Responding well and providing necessary support to those affected can be tricky, especially in the workplace. The CIPD work-based study on pregnancy loss and its effects on businesses identified a big gap in current support for employees.
According to the report According to the report, only 24% of senior HR professionals and decision makers surveyed said that their organisation encourages an open and supportive climate to the extent, where employees can talk about sensitive issues like pregnancy loss. 70% of those who didn’t feel supported by their line manager said that support would have been beneficial (5) and 24% admitted that they considered leaving their job due to the lack of support (6).
As the average age of mother and fatherhood rises, so too do these fertility challenges. Those employers who are informed and able to respond well to baby loss will improve employee wellbeing, retain talent and boost employee loyalty.
Join our free, gentle, taboo-busting webinar featuring Marianne Fernandez, Maternity and Baby Loss Coach, and become equipped to navigate this topic with compassion and confidence.
