When a baby or child has died.

Time together

You can spend as much time with your baby or child as you need. Holding them, talking to them, introducing them to the people who love them: none of this has to be hurried, and there is no right or wrong way to do it.

In hospital

The midwives and nurses will help you hold your baby or child, bathe and dress them, and take photographs. Many hospitals have a quiet family room, and a cooled cot, often called a cuddle cot, so that a baby can stay with you for longer. A specialist bereavement midwife, or the hospital’s bereavement team, will explain your choices and help with the paperwork.

At home

You can bring your baby or child home before the funeral, for a few hours or for a few days. The hospital will usually ask you to sign a form, and if the coroner is involved, the coroner needs to agree first. We can bring them home for you, or help you do it yourselves, and we will show you how to keep them cool and comfortable. Many parents find real comfort in having them in their own room, with their family around them.

With us

While your baby or child is in our care, you can visit them in our chapel of rest in Welshpool or Llanfair Caereinion, by appointment. Bring their own clothes if you would like them dressed in something familiar, and anything you would like to stay with them: a blanket, a favourite toy, letters or drawings from the family. If you would like to help dress them, please tell us.

Keepsakes and memories

Small things can come to mean a great deal: hand and foot prints, a lock of hair, a name band, the blanket they were wrapped in, and photographs of them with the people who love them. Most hospitals will help you make these, and many give parents a memory box.

If your baby died at 20 weeks of pregnancy or later, Remember My Baby’s volunteer photographers can take gentle photographs of them, free of charge, in hospital or in a hospice. You can ask them yourself, or the midwives can ask for you.

If there is something you did not have the chance to do in hospital, please ask us. It may still be possible.

Later, some families keep a memory book, plant a tree, or light a candle on special days. There is no right way, and no hurry.

If they died suddenly

If your baby or child died suddenly or unexpectedly, at home or anywhere other than hospital, call 999. Paramedics will come, and the police will come too. This happens for every family when a child dies unexpectedly, and it does not mean that anyone is under suspicion.

Your child will usually be taken to the nearest emergency department, where a senior children’s doctor will care for them and talk with you. A doctor and the police will need to ask what happened, and they may visit the place where your child died. You will be given a key worker, who will explain each step.

The coroner will be told, and will usually ask for a post-mortem examination, sometimes at a specialist children’s hospital. In most cases you can still see and hold your child, though someone may need to stay with you. Please ask: the people looking after you want to help you spend time together.

You can still choose your own funeral director, and you can call us at any point for advice. More about the coroner.

2wish supports families across Wales and Shropshire after the sudden death of a child or young person, and can visit you at home, often before the funeral. The Lullaby Trust supports families after the sudden death of a baby or young child. Charities that can help.

Registration

What needs registering depends on when your baby was born, or how old your child was. The hospital’s bereavement team, or we, can help you with the details.

• Before 24 weeks of pregnancy

  Nothing to register

  There is nothing to register in law, but you can still hold a funeral, and we will help you in exactly the same way. The hospital will explain the choices and give you the paperwork for the funeral.

  If the hospital arranges a shared cremation, there are no separate ashes, so do ask about the choices first. Baby loss certificates have been promised in Wales, but are not yet available.

• Stillborn, at 24 weeks or later

  Register within 42 days

  The midwife or doctor gives you a medical certificate of stillbirth to take to the register office. Your baby’s name can be entered in the register, and you will be given a certificate for the burial or cremation.

• Born alive, even briefly

  Birth and death

  If your baby was born alive, at any stage of pregnancy, both the birth and the death are registered, the birth first. They can usually be done at one appointment, so please mention it when you book.

• An older child

  Register within five days

  The medical examiner or the coroner looks at the cause of death first. The death is then registered within five days. Registering a death

You register in the area where your baby was born or your child died. If that was a hospital in England, such as in Telford or Shrewsbury, it is that area’s register office. You can make a declaration at a register office in Powys instead, but the paperwork then takes longer to reach us, so please talk to us first and we will make sure the funeral is not held up.

Help with costs

• No fees

  Council burial and cremation in Wales

  Councils in Wales make no charge to bury or cremate a child under 18, and that includes a baby at any stage of pregnancy. The Church in Wales makes no charge for a child’s burial either.

• £500

  For families living in Wales

  The Welsh Government gives £500 towards the funeral when a child under 18 dies, or a baby is stillborn from 24 weeks. The registrar offers it when you register, whatever your income. If you register in England, claim it through a Powys register office within 12 months.

• Fees paid

  A funeral in England

  At Emstrey Crematorium in Shrewsbury, or a cemetery in England, the Children’s Funeral Fund pays the fees and up to £300 towards a coffin, wherever you live. The crematorium or cemetery and we claim it directly.

• Up to £1,000

  Funeral Expenses Payment

  If you receive Universal Credit or certain other benefits, this government payment can help with other costs, such as our fees. Help with paying

Please talk to us about our own charges. Nothing needs deciding quickly, and we will never press you.

The funeral

A child’s funeral can be whatever feels right for your family: very small and private, or a gathering of everyone who loved them. It can be in a church or chapel, at the crematorium, at the graveside, in a natural burial ground, or it can begin from your home.

Some parents carry their baby’s coffin themselves, or travel with them in their own car instead of a hearse. Brothers and sisters might choose a song, draw pictures to go with them, or carry flowers. A minister, a celebrant or someone from the family can lead the service, or there need not be a service at all. We will talk it all through with you, gently and without hurry.

There are small coffins in wood, willow and wicker, and Moses baskets, and we will help you choose.

Some cemeteries have a special area for babies and children, and some families choose a family grave instead. We know the cemeteries around Welshpool and will show you the choices.

Brothers and sisters

Children grieve too, though often in short bursts: sad one moment and playing the next. That is normal, and it is how children cope.

Use simple, honest words. Saying that their brother or sister has died, and that their body has stopped working and cannot start again, is kinder than “gone to sleep” or “lost”, which can confuse or frighten young children.

Let them be involved if they would like to be: seeing their brother or sister, choosing something to go with them, or coming to the funeral with an adult who can look after them. Let their school or nursery know, so that their teachers can support them too.

Child Bereavement UK, which now includes Winston’s Wish, has gentle advice on talking with children of every age, and supports young people up to 25. Charities that can help.

Looking after yourselves

Grief after the death of a child has no timetable. You and your partner may grieve very differently, and at different times, and that is normal. Grandparents often grieve twice over: for their grandchild, and for you.

Work and money

• Parental Bereavement Leave. If you are employed, you can take two weeks’ leave after the death of a child under 18, or a stillbirth from 24 weeks of pregnancy, at any time in the 56 weeks that follow. It is a right from your first day in a job. If you have worked for your employer for 26 weeks, you may also get Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay, £194.32 a week in 2026 to 2027.
• Maternity and paternity leave and pay still apply after a stillbirth from 24 weeks of pregnancy, or if your baby dies after being born.
• Child Benefit usually carries on for eight weeks after your child dies. When you register, the registrar will give you a Tell Us Once reference, so you can let most government services know in one go.

If a child or baby dies, on GOV.UK

For family and friends

If you are reading this for someone you love: say the child’s name, and do not be afraid of mentioning them. Offer practical help, such as meals, lifts or looking after other children, rather than asking what you can do. And remember the hard days, like birthdays and anniversaries, long after the funeral.

We are still here after the funeral. If you would like to talk, collect ashes or plan a memorial, please call us at any time.

Charities and organisations that can help

These organisations are independent of us. Their help is free, and they are there for as long as you need them: in the first days, and months or years from now.

Closer to home, The Loss Lounge in Newtown is a group for parents whose child has died, started by two bereaved mums. It meets on the last Friday of each month at Platform 1, at Newtown station.