Name: Michelle Channon

Organisation: Little Baby & Co

Award Category: UK Support Organisation

Sponsored By:

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My Plea:

Little Baby & Co’s mission is to provide dignity to the tiniest of angel babies and support to their families. We believe even the smallest person deserves to be treated with dignity in death. We are a specialist provider of layettes for babies born still before 18 weeks and subsidised coffins for babies born still before 12 weeks within the UK.

Since our inception in 2011 Little Baby & Co has developed and provided specialist layettes to meet the unique needs of babies born still before 18 weeks. We are a small none-profit organization that works as a small charity. We support families facing the reality of early loss through miscarriage as well as for those facing the heartbreak of a possible medical terminations when a much-wanted baby is found to have serious problems. Longer term befriending is available to those facing the heartbreak of recurrent miscarriages, secondary infertility following early loss and for those whose mental health has been significantly impacted by early baby-loss.

We do this through our online presence, by phone calls and by providing specialist layettes to dress the littlest of babies who would otherwise be left naked in their passing. We believe every family who wants to should be able to remember their little baby dressed, warm and wrapped in love. Little Baby & Co aims to provide 24-hour cover 365 days of the year.

Our beautiful layettes are lovingly created for us by our dedicated and skilled team of volunteers for angels who are just too small for any other clothing. Our layettes include a wrap or gown, a suitable sized soft blanket and two tiny penny bears small enough to snuggle alongside an 8-week gestation baby. We provide such layettes for babies up to 18 weeks gestation. These specialist layettes are available directly to families who most need them and to specialist hospital services providing care to those facing earlier baby-loss. Memory items are also available to UK families regardless of when their little baby died. Whilst we do have to ask for postage to be covered our layettes and memory keepsakes are provided without charge to the families who need them.

We also provide a unique service for families whose baby is born still before 12 weeks. Seeing a real need Little Baby & Co decided to offer at subsidised cost tiny wooden caskets suitable for a home burial for the littlest of babies. Often such families will not have been offered or had a private funeral service option made available to them. We let families know their choices so they can give their baby the farewell they long to be able to give them.

To be shortlisted for UK Support Organisation again says that whilst we are small what we do is making a big difference for grieving parents living with earlier baby-loss. To have a chance to win the award for UK Support Organisation validates all the hard work put in by our core team, our amazing crafters and our loyal supporters. In the past eight years they have done and given so much to raise awareness of early baby-loss and of our work. Most importantly being nominated helps us to reach many more hospitals, specialist gynaecology nurses, specialist EPU’s, funeral directors and all who care for families facing baby-loss before 20 weeks with the message that it is possible to help families to make memories and give DIGNITY to all our precious littlest angels.

What Others Have Said

This charity have counselled me via their inbox more than any other service has (including NHS) and I know they are not obliged to do this. They sent me what I needed to lay my baby to rest and I’ll never be able to thank them enough for that, but the hours of their own time spent talking to me and offering their comfort is something I’ll never be able to repay. Whenever I called out to them (which was usually in the middle of the night) they answered straight away.

Thank you for reading about Little Baby & Co.

https://youtu.be/eEdoPGOJ0MQ