Sam Collinge
Health Professional Advisor – Bereavement Lead Midwife
Sam Collinge is Bereavement Lead Midwife (George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust) and Co-Lead and author of the Independent Pregnancy Loss Review.
Sam qualified as a midwife in 1990 and was a sister on the neonatal unit at University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust until she was appointed as a bereavement midwife in 1998.
It was through her work on the neonatal unit that she became aware of the need to better support families whose babies sadly died on the unit and in particular the families of twins and higher multiples where one or more babies had died and was awarded the RCM (Royal College of Midwives) award for excellence in bereavement care in 2015 for her sensitive photography project ‘Forever Photos’.
Since then she has campaigned for a standardised care pathway that ensures that every parent experiencing baby loss (regardless of the gestation or type of loss) receives the physical and emotional care and support they deserve and has been involved at a national level as a member of the APPG baby loss and as an advisor on the development of the National Bereavement Care Pathway.
She continues to work with the Government to implement the remainder of the recommendations as part of the ‘Pregnancy Loss Reviews Oversight group’.
Sam says –
“The Pregnancy Loss Review which was published in July 2023 made 73 recommendations for improving care for bereaved families and offers a real opportunity to change the landscape of pre-24 week loss and I feel enormously privileged to have co-led this piece of work”.
You can find the full report here.
“Miscarriage and other types of pre-24 weeks baby loss is often minimised and treated as a “clinical event“ or “just one of those things” rather than the loss of a baby and sadly the emotional impact of the loss is often disregarded”.
“One of the reports first recommendations to be implemented was the introduction of a national certificate of baby loss which was launched in February 2024 and will give bereaved parents the official recognition that their babies did exist and that their babies lives, however brief, really do matter”.
Parents who lose one or more babies before 24-weeks can request a certificate here.
Dr Nick Embleton BSc MBBS MD FRCPCH
Health Professional Advisor – Neonatal & Paediatrics
Dr Nick Embleton is Professor of Neonatal Medicine, Newcastle University and Consultant Neonatal Paediatrician, Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
Nick qualified in 1990 and has worked in neonatology for more than 30 years. He leads a broad portfolio of research, as part of a team based in Newcastle upon Tyne, focused in two key areas:
- Nutrition
- Baby loss
Hello! I am writing to introduce myself and our research, and thank you to Sharon and Suzie for inviting me to join the team.
Our qualitative research involved families where there was a multiple pregnancy where one or more babies died, but where there was at least one surviving baby, and we developed a Butterfly symbol that parents can use on their baby’s incubator or cot when the surviving baby is still in hospital.
Many of our families had a twin baby who had died on the neonatal unit, but we also spoke with families where the baby loss was a miscarriage or stillbirth. Our findings have been published in medical journals, and we also created a film project with families. We now provide Butterfly cot cards to hundreds of hospitals in the UK, supported by our charity partner Purple Butterfly | The Skye High Foundation
We created a website www.neonatalbutterflyproject.org where you can find out more and see these short videos. The website is designed for health professionals rather than families and the public, so some people might find the information emotional or triggering. We also created an eLearning course for health professionals to help educate and improve the care we can provide within the NHS. Loss of a Baby in Multiple Pregnancy: Supporting Grieving Parents – FutureLearn
Dr Angelo Cavallaro
Health Professional Advisor – Consultant in Obstetrics and Fetal Medicine
Dr. Angelo Cavallaro is a Consultant in Obstetrics and Fetal Medicine at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. He studied medicine at the University of Naples Federico II in Italy, where he also completed his specialist training in Obstetrics and Gynaecology. In 2015, he finished his subspecialist training in Fetal Medicine.
Dr. Cavallaro completed a Clinical Research Fellowship at the Nuffield Department of Women’s and Reproductive Health, University of Oxford. He earned his PhD in Medicine in 2024 and is actively involved in various research projects focused on maternal, fetal, and perinatal health. His primary research interests include fetal growth, management of complications of monochorionic twin pregnancy, and prediction of neonatal adverse outcomes.
