Bereavement care

Care for families who have lost a baby

Rainbow Clinic

The term 'rainbow pregnancy' is used by many families to describe a pregnancy following a pregnancy loss or neonatal death.

The Rainbow Clinic is a specialist service for women and birthing people who are expecting a baby, having previously experienced a loss over 20 weeks, a stillbirth, or neonatal death.

Our aim is to support you through your pregnancy and offer extra reassurance and support alongside your community midwife.

Your community midwife can refer you to the Rainbow Clinic at your booking appointment. The clinic is run weekly on Level 1 Outpatients in the Women's Centre.

If you have any queries about this service, please contact Rainbow.clinic@oxnet.nhs.uk.

Bereavement services

If you have suffered a pregnancy loss from around 14 weeks onwards or neonatal death, you will be cared for by a dedicated and compassionate team. This includes access to support from a specialist bereavement team within the Butterfly Suite on Level 7 in the Women's centre. We encourage your partner or a family member to stay with you at this time.

During your stay with us, the team can provide information regarding funerals, registering your baby, post-mortem examinations, and postnatal mental health support.

The Butterfly Suite is supported by charities such as 4Louis, who provide memory making resources to us. This provides us with the facilities to do hand and footprints, casts and photos of your baby if you wish. The bereavement team will discuss these options with you during your stay.

Once you are discharged from the Butterfly Suite, if you would like to come back to see your baby, please call the ward on 01865 221666 or the bereavement team between 8:00am - 4.00pm on 01865 227778 to arrange this. Please be aware that they may need 24 hours' notice to facilitate this for you.