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Bereavement with Bosom Buddies |
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Written by Caren Dorrington
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Thursday, 05 November 2009 14:25 |
 Bosom Buddies’ main hospital we service is a high risk hospital. This means many premature babies, babies up for adoption, unwell mothers, babies born sick and neo-natal deaths. When we first started the project we were totally unprepared for the high number of stillbirths we experienced. In the years since we have improved our care of the mothers but never enough. A tiny little girl called Sophia Grace who went straight to heaven inspired us to improve our care and BBS was born. BBS stands for Babies Born Sleeping. The project is headed up by Tracey Brown (left in the picture) who is trained in grief counseling.
We have a way to go but Monday’s visit had our volunteers very upset with a mother who had to birth her dead baby. Tracey was phoned and when she arrived the baby was wrapped in paper in the linen room and the mother hadn’t seen her little one. Tracey wrapped him in a blanket, put a little hat on and with the blessing of his parents, presented him to them to name and say goodbye to. She also took and printed a photograph of the tiny little boy thanks to Canon who blessed us with a camera. While it didn’t take away their grief, it definitely softened the experience for them and made it easier for them to grieve. We want to train up a few volunteers for BBS and be available for every mother who loses her precious baby. We want to put them in touch with the right people afterwards for extended counseling. I am so grateful to Tracey, to Canon and to Sophia Grace’s mother who shared her experience with us enabling us to help other mothers. |
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 05 November 2009 14:28 )
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