Petals: Thousands demand funding for Cambridge baby-loss charity

Five Petals counsellors in Cambridgeshire saw 320 families in the last 12 months alone

More than 6,000 people have signed a letter to health bosses to demand they fund a baby-loss counselling service.

The Pregnancy Expectations, Trauma and Loss Society (Petals) ended its service at the Rosie Hospital, Cambridge, this month after NHS funding stopped.

The letter to Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) said support was "so desperately needed".

Petals said it was in contact with the CCG and Addenbrooke's Hospital.

Earlier this month, the CCG said it could not provide funding "due to its [own] financial situation".

Petals is based at the Rosie Birth Centre, part of the Addenbrooke's Hospital complex in Cambridge

The charity was founded at the hospital, on the Addenbrooke's site, in 2011 and expanded to seven other hospitals in Suffolk, Essex, Oxford and London, where CCGs have "ring-fenced" money from their budgets, chief executive Karen Burgess said.

'Unsustainable and irresponsible'

Suffolk CCG provides £45,000 annual funding for Petals' services at the county's hospitals, she said, while services in Cambridge cost £70,000 a year.

The letter addressed to Jan Thomas, the head of the CCG. said the charity was "deeply shocked and saddened" by the loss of funding.

It said: "Baby loss is devastating for parents and it brings unique psychological challenges; post-traumatic stress is extremely common, alongside complicated grief, anxiety and depression."

It asked the CCG to reinstate funding, adding it "shouldn't depend so heavily on the generosity of donors - this is unsustainable and irresponsible".

Libbi and Matthew Johnson lost one of their twins at birth

Libbi and Matthew Johnson received counselling from Petals after their son Benedict died in 2017 but his twin sister Imogen survived.

Mrs Johnson described the charity's help as "so incredibly crucial" as it allowed her and her husband to "properly grieve".

"The question is whether we'd still be potentially even together... or alive [without it]," she added.

Danielle Watson said discovering her daughter was stillborn was terrifying

Danielle Watson, whose daughter Bethan was stillborn, said it was "the most frightening time I could think of".

She said Petals "really were the people we turned to and held on to, to get us through that really difficult part in our lives".

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough CCG have been approached for comment.