I don’t know about you but no matter how hard-hitting a statistic is, I think it’s hard to truly comprehend the gravity of that number until you are part of that statistic yourself. In becoming a ‘1’ in the 1 in 4 women in the UK who suffer pregnancy or birth loss, I found myself in need of support. Fortunately, it didn’t take me long to land upon Tommy’s, a charity organisation committed to saving babies’ lives and supporting families through the pregnancy journey. Tommy’s fund pioneering research into the causes and treatments of miscarriage, still births and premature births, so pregnancy and birth can be made safer for all.

With my jellybean 12 Days of Giving nomination, I wanted to support a charity I have personally benefited from. Knowing and experiencing what a donation like this can help offer women and their families, I wanted to shine a light on their incredible work and help raise their profile a little more amongst jellybean’s community.

Tommy’s was founded in 1992 when two obstetricians working at London’s St Thomas’ Hospital – Dr Ian Fergusson and Dr Anthony Kenney – couldn’t and wouldn’t accept the lack of answers surrounding premature birth. Together with one of their patients, Lucy Nelson, they decided to start a campaign raising money for pregnancy research projects. The campaign grew into Tommy’s charity.

The incredible work of Tommy’s:
– Research the causes of baby loss with the mission to make the UK the safest place to give birth, halving the number of babies who die in pregnancy and birth by 2030.
– Launched the PregnancyHub to support families with expert-led pregnancy information throughout their journey. On average, 2 million people use the online hub every month.
– Support families after baby loss with a range of resources, tools and services, including providing support at work for pregnant people and their families. Tommy’s is looking to partner with companies that are committed to supporting their employees’ pregnancy and parenthood, whatever the journey looks like for them. If you are interested in becoming part of Pregnancy at Work you can contact pregnancyatwork@tommys.org
– Fundraising to help Tommy’s continue to be the largest pregnancy charity in the UK and to ensure that it can continue its incredible work to save babies’ lives.

Like myself, Tommy’s is passionate about breaking the stigma that surrounds miscarriage, stillbirth, premature birth, termination for medical reasons and neonatal loss. I would love to see the stigma around baby loss removed, and I believe sharing your stories and experiences, if and when you feel comfortable enough to do so, can be the start of a very powerful thing. I have personally found comfort in finding other ‘1’s in my network and leaning on those lovely people for support.

If you would like to donate to Tommy’s and help fund vital research into miscarriage, stillbirth and premature birth, so that more babies’ lives can be saved, follow this link.