About HUG

Who is Tommy’s and what do they do?

Tommy’s has been working to save babies lives for 25 years. In 1992, two obstetricians from St Thomas’ Hospital in London were frustrated by the lack of answers available for the women. Now, the charity they founded is the UK’s leading charity researching into the causes and prevention of baby loss. Sadly, 1 in 4 pregnancies will end in loss in the UK, causing untold heartbreak to parents and families.

Tommy’s raise funds to facilitate medical research into why babies are born too soon or lost in pregnancy and birth. Our researchers are working to find the answers and come up with solutions to save babies lives’ and protect families from the devastation that the loss of a baby causes.

We have four research centres across the UK dedicated to prematurity, miscarriage and stillbirth research. In April of 2016 we realised a longstanding ambition and opened our National Centre for Miscarriage Research, the largest of its kind in Europe.

As well as conducting pioneering research, Tommy’s provide a bespoke pregnancy information service offering information, advice and support to help women have the healthiest pregnancy possible. All of our information is certified by The Information Standard and informed by our team of midwives, who also run a free information line for pregnancy advice and bereavement support.

The page for Family and Friends is excellent as too often parents experience accidental insensitivity from those closest to them.

• We think this page could be really valuable to people

• Tommys have pages on trying again after a loss here
  

• Tommys also have this amazing page in trying again after a loss

• Tommys have a wonderful video on pregnancy after a loss which not only talks about the anxiety, it also talks about how Tommy’s can help.

HUG is still pushing to get ‘HUG nurses’ on wards to identify them as somewhat bereavement trained. It is so sad that so many have had negative experiences at hospitals, with the majority being from the way bereaved parents are dealt with in insensitive manners. It has been a well-received idea and the NHS are positive about this. They recognise that there are issues with some staff and they need to be addressed. There’s a long way to go but at least we are in the right direction! A huge thank you to all the amazing, hard working doctors, midwives and nurses and everyone else on the team that do make such a difference to patient experience.

We really appreciate it, more than you will ever know!