Perinatal Trauma and Loss Service

We are so sorry to hear that your baby has died. The loss of a baby is a devasting experience bringing with it grief and intense emotional pain. There is no right or wrong way to grieve or respond to such a loss. Everyone is different, and sometimes we may need some additional support.

If you feel that the loss of your baby is having a significant impact on your mental health and you wish to receive support from our service we will first require a referral from a health care professional currently involved in your care. This could be your GP, midwife, health visitor or mental health practitioner.

If you are unsure whether your current mental health difficulties would meet our criteria, please discuss this with your health care professional. If they are unsure, they are welcome to contact the team to discuss this on your behalf.   

Opting in to access support

The grief felt in the immediate days and weeks after losing a baby can feel overwhelming. Intense longing, disbelief and anger alongside physical heart ache and feeling detached from the world and others are all to be expected during this incredible difficult time. During these early days of acute grief, it is important that you give yourself time to process and grieve the loss of your baby with your loved ones.

To allow time for this, we do not offer appointments until at least 28 days after your loss. We also want to ensure that you have consented to the referral to our service, understand what support we can offer and that you feel ready to talk about your loss and receive support.

Therefore, after receiving your referral, we will invite you to opt-in to attend an initial appointment. We ask that you do this within 14 days. You will receive this opt-in via text message. If you opt-in, we will send you an appointment letter.

However, everyone grieves differently, and now might not feel the right time to access support, this is okay. If you wish for another referral in the future, you can request this from your GP or other healthcare professionals listed above up until two years following your loss.

After receiving a referral into the service, our clinical psychologists, specialist midwifes and health care professionals from our talking therapies and maternity services meet to discuss which service would be most appropriate to offer you an appointment to discuss how best to support you through this extremely difficult time.

If this will be offered from our service, we will send you a text asking you to opt-in to attend either an initial assessment or briefer triage appointment. You are welcome to bring a family member or friend with you to this appointment for support.

The aim of both appointments are to have a discussion to assess your needs and think together about the best support options available. If you do not meet the criteria for our service and we feel an alternative service would be more appropriate to offer support, we shall offer signposting information and, with your consent, complete onward referrals on your behalf.

We recognise that talking about the loss of your baby can feel painful and daunting, especially when meeting someone for the first time. You will not be expected to give detailed accounts of your experience.

Initial assessment

An initial assessment will last up to 90 minutes. This appointment offers you the opportunity to tell us, in your own words, about the difficulties and challenges you are experiencing in relation to the loss of your baby. To help us better understand your experience, we will ask about your fertility journey and experience of maternity care, you are free to provide as much information as you feel comfortable to.

In addition, we will ask questions about your early life experiences and any past mental health challenges and support you have received. We will also consider what is important to you, what your hopes are for the future and what goals you may wish to work on with support.

Triage appointment

A triage is a 30 minute virtual appointment via the NHS Attend Anywhere system. Like an initial assessment, you will have the opportunity to tell us in your own words about the difficulties and challenges you have experienced following the loss of your baby. We offer briefer triage calls when it is less clear from the referral information whether you meet criteria to receive support from our service. This appointment allows us to gather more information to help inform this decision, without the need for you to attend a full assessment which we recognise can be difficult.

Where will appointments be held?

Appointments are offered in person at Union House (Cambridge) or the City Care Centre (Peterborough), or if required a home visit can be arranged. Additionally, remote appointments are offered via the NHS Attend Anywhere system. The team will liaise with you to discuss the location of your appointments taking into account any accessibility needs.

How to cancel or change your appointment

Please call our admin team on 0800 952 0060 (9am-5pm) if you wish to cancel or change your appointment.

Psychological therapy

The perinatal trauma and loss service is run by a team of specialist clinical psychologists and midwives. Working together we offer a range of time limited evidence-based therapeutic interventions including:

·        Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) to support with anxiety, depression and trauma

·        Eye movement desensitisation (EMDR) to support with persistent distressing memories and trauma

·        Prolonged grief therapy (PGDT) to support with coming to terms with grief and navigating moving forward when grief feels stuck

·        Compassion focused therapy (CFT) to support with feelings of guilt, shame and self-criticism

·        Interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT) to support with depression and understanding how our mood is influenced by our relationships

Specialist midwifery support

Making the decision to have another baby following a perinatal loss can be a very confusing and daunting experience. You may feel unsure about when, or even if, there will be a right time in the future. Understandably, you may feel anxious and scared about the possibility of experiencing another loss, especially if the reason of your previous loss was unknown. Our specialist midwives can offer a safe space to support you to make sense of the maternity specific aspects of your experience. They can also provide brief psychological support to help you to feel more confident to manage antenatal anxiety and the maternity environment if you become pregnant in the future.

Pregnancy following a previous loss can bring with it a range of difficult thoughts, feelings and responses that feel overwhelming and at times isolating. Increased anxiety, fear of another loss and finding antenatal care and the hospital environment triggering and overwhelming are common experiences and can impact on your mental health and your relationship with your baby. We recognise the importance of having consistent, supportive care during this time to help you feel as safe and supported as possible. Our specialist midwives offer enhanced midwifery care, including birth preference planning and postnatal support up to eight weeks following the birth of your baby.

As a service, we recognise that every person needs different types of support and that this need can change over time. Some people may prefer to read information or listen to the stories of others in private. Others may feel the benefit from meeting others who have been through a similar experience by joining support groups. The document below provides information about a range of charities, local and national services that can offer support following perinatal loss. Support for dads and coparents can be found on page 4: LINK to our signposting doc (PDF).

How Are You (H.A.Y) Cambridgeshire & Peterborough are an engagement service working in partnership with Cambridgeshire & Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust to bring together resources in the local community that are good for wellbeing. The following links provides information about local activities, groups and services.

South Cambridgeshire: https://haysouthcambs.co.uk/support/perinatal-loss-bereavement/

Support for dads, coparents and wider family members

We recognise that grief and emotional distress following the loss of a baby impacts both parents. However, dads and coparents are often expected to be the ‘strong one’ and take on the supportive role. This is an extremely difficult task when you too are grieving and in emotional pain. Many dads and coparents report that their grief can be overlooked, as though others forget that they too have lost a child. This can feel isolating, but you are not alone.

As the leading baby loss charity, Sands provides a wealth of support for men, coparents and the wider family who have been affected by grief. Online support groups, stories from others who have experienced a perinatal loss and information on local Sands United football clubs are just some of what they offer: Support for men | Sands - Saving babies' lives. Supporting bereaved families.

In the video below Carissa and Dan share their experience of losing their daughter Nylah

Sands stories - Carissa & Dan (youtube.com)

To make a referral to our service please download the referral form below and return to: perinataltraumaandlossreferrals@cpft.nhs.uk.

PTLS Professionals Referral Form.docx [docx] 188KB

GPs can make a referral to the service via the Primary Care Mental Health service.

In addition, direct referrals will be accepted from midwifery and maternity colleagues, health visiting, NICU/SCBU and from Primary and Secondary Care Mental Health practitioners currently involved in the patient’s care.

Please note: the Perinatal Trauma and Loss Service is not an emergency service. We do not accept urgent referrals.

If you are concerned that your patient is in mental health crisis or requires immediate care, please contact the First Response Service on 111, select the option for mental health crisis. If you are a mental health professional, consider a referral to the crisis team. 

As we are a psychological intervention service, if a patient requires broader multidisciplinary or wrap-around support, please consider a referral to the Community Adult Mental Health Team instead or as well as a referral to our service.

If you are unsure whether your patient meets our criteria, or you wish to discuss a referral please contact the team: 0800 952 0060 (Mon-Fri 9am-5pm).