Aching Arms

Aching Arms is a charity supporting parents who experience the loss of their baby during pregnancy, at birth or soon after. Aching Arms gifts comfort teddy bears to bereaved parents and offers direct support via our Supporting Arms Service. We advocate for the emotional health needs of parents after pregnancy and baby loss.

achingarms.co.uk Fundraise for us

info@achingarms.co.uk

07876504042

Registered charity no. 1153296

Member since November 2021

Latest News

Supporting Arms for Dads

Sometimes Dads who have lost their baby need the opportunity to talk with other Dads who have gone through a similar experience. Aching Arms offers a monthly online group just for Dads, offering the chance to gain support and comfort from speaking to others. The group is facilitated by Wayne Carpenter, a professional counsellor, to ensure that if extra support is needed outside of the group, then he can point participants in the right direction. All Dads are welcome and please note, there is no pressure to say anything. If someone just wants to listen, then that is completely fine with us.

If you would like more information on Supporting Arms For Dads, please email clientcare@achingarms.co.uk

Supporting Bereaved Parents in the workplace

Bereavement Workplace Training - Supporting employees after Pregnancy and Baby Loss

In the UK, around 3,000 babies are stillborn each year and thousands more couples experience early and late miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, termination for medical reasons, neonatal death or the death of an infant.

Aching Arms knows first-hand how important it is that employers and their managers have the knowledge, understanding and skills to support bereaved employees whilst on leave and on their return to work. We offer a flexible training programme to meet your specific needs. We have recently launched our new one hour webinar module and the feedback has been so incredibly positive:

"I just found the entire hour incredibly beneficial and prepared me for what I need to consider for my colleague not just now but in the months and years to come and how to handle things in a sensitive manner."

"The training provided me with practical ways to assist a colleague suffering bereavement."

"I didn't really know what to expect but found the way each stage was broken down and based upon own personal experience together with feedback from others extremely informative and very enlightening."

If you would like to know more about our training please email Leanne via leanne@achingarms.co.uk.

About us

Aching Arms is a national baby loss charity that gives its comfort bears to hospitals and hospices, for midwives and nurses to offer to bereaved parents in their care. Along with the bears, we also offer a support service to parents after their loss, whether it was during pregnancy, at birth or soon after. “It’s not just a bear, it’s like someone walking up to you and holding your hand through your darkest days. I treasure my bear. It brings a kind of comfort that no-one else can.” As well as giving out our bears through our health professional partners, we have donated bears to other organisations who support families after baby loss at any stage of pregnancy over the last 11 years. We currently work with over 70% of NHS hospitals in the UK, as well as an increasing number of hospices, support groups and funeral directors. We also send bears to families who contact us to request one. In the UK, around 3,000 babies are stillborn each year and thousands more parents experience early and late miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, termination for medical reasons, neonatal death and loss through separation from their baby. There are an enormous number of families affected by the loss of a baby and Aching Arms, which began as a small grassroots charity, has seen demand for its service continue to increase in the last 12 months. Last year we donated over 5,000 bears to bereaved families. Aching Arms has recently extended it services and now offers direct help and advice to parents via our Supporting Arms Service, a telephone, email and online support service which is run by bereaved parents who are qualified health professionals. The service offers families the chance to talk to someone who has an understanding of what they’re going through and helps them feel they’re not alone. In March 2022 we launched our Supporting Arms for Dads monthly online support group. In November 2021, we hosted our first in person family wellbeing days in Essex at the Wilderness Foundation. A further programme of 'Be Together' events are planned for 2022.

Aching Arms is raising awareness of the impact of pregnancy and baby loss and we work hard with other organisations and groups to increase understanding of the life changing and long-term effect of baby loss. We are very active in advocating improvement in bereavement care in both health settings and the workplace. To this end, the charity has developed and runs training for health professionals, employers, and people managers.

At the heart of our work is the mental health and healing of bereaved parents and their families. Aching Arms have received feedback from bereaved mums and families about how their bear and the charity have helped them, some examples are below… “The words on the tag of the Aching Arms bear might be one of the most comforting things I've ever seen. Thank you for that wonderful gift”