Peaceful Bereavement Garden opens during Babyloss Awareness Week
A garden, which is a safe and welcoming sanctuary for families who have lost their babies, has opened for the first time at Broomfield Hospital as part of Babyloss Awareness Week (9-15 October).
The Blossom Garden cost £25,000, funded by Mid and South Essex Hospitals Charity, and is a quiet location where families impacted can take their baby, away from the ward, to make lasting memories.
The garden also gives somewhere families can return to, after they had gone home, to feel connected to their baby.
Stacey Alliston, from Basildon who suffered her own babyloss, said: “This is such a lovely space and it’s quiet so we can reflect. It’s somewhere I can come with my blossom friends, our rainbow babies can play and we can feel close to all our babies.”
Families who visit the garden, are also able to bring along a pebble showing the name of their baby and place it on the path leading into the garden.
Tabitha Stuthridge, Senior Specialist Bereavement Midwife, said: “The Blossom Garden was thoughtfully planned and designed by the Grounds and Gardens team, with support and input from the Blossom Suite team at the hospital. The garden is an extension of that bereavement suite for families affected by babyloss.
“It started as an idea five years ago after a father spoke about how he wished he had thought about taking his baby outside to feel the sun on its face. The Blossom Suite is a lovely space, having a change of scenery away from the ward gives parents a chance to spend precious time together.”
Careful research and thought went into the design and choosing the plants to make it fit for purpose, making it a peaceful place where families can pause and reflect.
Benches and a butterfly screen offer individual areas for people to use, and the location in the woods led to the opportunity to plant bluebells and incorporate the woods into the garden, giving the impression that the garden continues and on, like the never-ending love parents have for their babies.
The Blossom Suite also has its own pram kindly donated by a bereaved family, and now there is somewhere special to take it, on its own soft gravel path in the garden that is somewhere away from the ward. It’s a place where parents can experience doing things they thought they would never be able to do following the loss of their baby.