About this site

The Safer Pregnancy website has been developed by Sands the stillbirth and neonatal death charity as a result of listening to the voices of parents whose baby had died. 

Stillbirth is the death of an unborn baby at or after 24 weeks of pregnancy. It happens in around 1 in 230 pregnancies in the UK. While stillbirth is a difficult subject for pregnant women and their partners to think about, at Sands we know that many parents do not realise it remains a possibility until their baby dies. If  you have experienced baby loss and are thinking about another pregnancy or are pregnant again, this site has evidence-based advice you can trust. Sands is here to help

Why Safer Pregnancy?

We feel it's important that women and their partners know that occasionally things can go seriously wrong in any pregnancy, so they can make well-informed decisions about their health and care. And when we did some research on this, women told us they wanted advice about how to reduce the chances of this happening as part of their pregnancy information

www.saferpregnancy.org.uk aims to raise awareness of stillbirth, let women know what they can do in pregnancy to help themselves and link to good-quality information on specific issues. It’s important to say that stillbirths and neonatal deaths happen for lots of reasons and we are a long way from understanding all the causes. Sadly, some pregnancies with none of the risks described on this site still end in a baby’s death. Sands funds research to help find the causes and to improve the detection of problems that might lead to a death before, during or shortly after birth. Find out more at www.sands.org.uk/our-work/research/studies-we-fund

The development of this site stems from an initial project, led by Sands and the Department of Health, to identify the most important things a woman could do to reduce the risk of stillbirth in her pregnancy. The project involved health professionals, charities and professional organisations, and resulted in a final consensus document covering the key points that should be included in pregnancy information for women. Sands has also contributed to the Saving Babies Lives Care Bundle which contains detailed information for maternity providers to help prevent babies from dying. 

Thanks

We are grateful to the Aurum Charitable Trust for funding the development of this website

We also thank the following organisations that helped develop some of the website's content 

Disclaimer

While we have taken care to ensure the information on this website is both accurate and up to date, Sands does not accept any liability to any party for loss, or damage incurred by reliance placed on the information contained in this website or through omission or errors howsoever caused. Nothing in this website constitutes professional advice and any user of the website should consult a suitable qualified professional for advice relating to a specific enquiry or issue

Intellectual property

Sands, the stillbirth and neonatal death charity, holds the copyright for this site and its content: © 2023  Sands. You may copy, download and reproduce the content for your personal use. You must not use the content for reproduction on any other website, or in any way for commercial purpose or gain unless you first obtain our written consent. The term 'content' includes all text, images and graphics that appear on the website, and the design and layout of the website

Links

Our website contains links to other websites. These links are for your convenience only and Sands is not responsible for the content of any third-party websites linked to this website, and does not endorse or approve the content of any of these third party websites

Law and jurisdiction

Your use of this website, these terms and any matters arising are subject to the laws of England. Any dispute is subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Courts of England. Save as specifically provided otherwise, this website is targeted only at UK residents

Registered office

This website is operated by Sands, a company limited by guarantee, company number 2212082, with registered office
s at Sands, 10-18 Union Street, London, SE1 1SZ; also registered as a charity in England and Wales under charity number 299679, and in Scotland under charity registration number SC042789