Being Luminary

Baby Loss, Stigma and Return to work, with Katie Redden

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Episode notes

Trigger Warning - As with all of our episodes, we are going to be delving into lived experience and in this episode, we will be discussing Katie's experience of baby loss. If this episode brings up anything for you that you would like support with, we encourage you to seek help from appropriate professionals or support groups, and we've listed a few below.

In this episode, I’m talking to Katie Redden, about her experience of baby Matilda’s death before delivery, and returning to work in the aftermath. We talk about the impact of loss, how her school, and her partner’s school handled their return, and what more could be done to help bereaved parents.

Katie studied English Literature and History of Art at Birmingham University. After teaching English abroad for a couple of years, she returned to London to complete her PGCE in English teaching at The Institute of Education. Katie taught English in secondary schools in Cambridge and Bristol. It was while teaching in Bristol that she became pregnant with her first baby. This pregnancy ended in her baby being stillborn at 40 weeks in October 2005. By Christmas, Katie had returned to school to work as a volunteer in the SEN department while technically still on maternity leave, until she felt ready to teach again. She then took a number of years out of teaching to be at home with her subsequent children before retraining as a school counsellor. Katie now works in a secondary school in North Devon counselling young people.

You can find support for dealing with miscarriage and baby loss from www.sands.org.uk and www.tommys.org/baby-loss-support

More about Baby Loss Awareness Week can be found here https://babyloss-awareness.org/support/

Sign up for our weekly email series, Strategy Sundays. Emails go out every Sunday, offering you the chance to get to grips with one tangible piece of change around equity in your organisation. You can sign up here https://beingluminary.myflodesk.com/mnl0u3o8gd

Nothing Without Us is presented by Angie Browne from Being Luminary. 
It is edited by Big Tent Media and produced by Emily Crosby Media.