CuddleCot and SSAFA:
A Special Collaboration for Baby Loss Awareness Week 2026
Written by Sian Ness, Bereavement Consultant & Relationship Manager, Midwife
This Baby Loss Awareness Week, CuddleCot and SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity are coming together for a very special collaboration focused on improving bereavement care and support for British Armed Forces families experiencing pregnancy and baby loss while stationed overseas.
Each year, CuddleCot uses Baby Loss Awareness Week as an opportunity to shine a light on an area of pregnancy and baby loss that may be less visible, underserved or where there is an opportunity to improve the care and support available to families.
Following conversations with SSAFA last year, we identified the challenges that can arise when a British Armed Forces family experiences the devastating loss of a baby while living overseas and what a nuanced experience this can be. Alongside their grief, families may find themselves navigating an unfamiliar healthcare system, local processes and military procedures, often while geographically separated from their wider family and established support networks.
This became the starting point for our Baby Loss Awareness Week 2026 collaboration.
Over recent months, I have been working closely with SSAFA colleagues in Cyprus to understand the experiences of families and professionals and explore how, together, we can strengthen the support available following pregnancy and baby loss.
What initially began as an idea to develop better information for families has grown into a much broader, multi-faceted bereavement care improvement project. Rather than introducing one isolated resource, we are looking across the bereavement pathway to consider how we can improve information, professional practice, practical resources, memory-making and families’ opportunities to spend precious time with their baby.
A dedicated support booklet for British Armed Forces families
One of the central elements of the project is the development of a bespoke support and information booklet specifically for British military families experiencing pregnancy or baby loss in Cyprus.
The booklet will bring together clear, compassionate and practical information about what families can expect, including relevant local healthcare processes, military considerations and the organisations and services available to support them.
Our aim is to provide families with one accessible resource that recognises the unique circumstances of experiencing the death of a baby while living and serving overseas, reducing some of the additional uncertainty at an already overwhelming time.
Reviewing Bereavement Guidance and Care Pathways
Alongside the family-facing resource, the project includes a review of existing bereavement guidance and pathways to identify opportunities to strengthen consistency, communication and family-centred care.
Providing families with better information is important, but sustainable improvement also requires the clinical and organisational systems surrounding them to support compassionate and coordinated care.
By looking at the wider pathway, we hope to identify where processes can be strengthened and ensure professionals have the guidance they need to support families well.
Bespoke Multidisciplinary Bereavement Care Training
SSAFA is also funding a programme of bespoke, in-person bereavement training in Cyprus.
The training will be multidisciplinary, recognising that following the death of a baby, families may encounter several different professionals. This will include midwives, health visitors and nurses.
The training will explore areas including compassionate communication, trauma informed support for families following loss, memory-making and care of a baby after death as well as ways to remember their baby in the country they are based.
As part of the visit to Cyprus, I also plan to visit the American Hospital in Nicosia, which provides intrapartum care for British military families in the event of a stillbirth. This will provide an important opportunity to understand the pathway families experience in practice and ensure that the information we provide accurately reflects what families can expect when accessing hospital care.
It will also allow us to explore whether there are further opportunities to strengthen bereavement provision through wider hospital collaboration.
Strengthening Memory Making Provision
As part of this project, we will be supporting the provision of dedicated memory-making resources, including memory boxes, keepsakes and certificates for all pregnancy and baby loss.
Our aim is to ensure that opportunities for memory-making are not dependent on what happens to be available locally at the time of a loss. Instead, professionals will have access to appropriate resources that can be offered sensitively and consistently, giving families choice about the memories they would like to create with their baby.
A Community CuddleCot for Cyprus
A particularly special element of the collaboration is the planned placement of a Community CuddleCot in Cyprus.
The CuddleCot will be available to support British Armed Forces families receiving care at the hospital in Nicosia, allowing parents additional precious time with their baby following their death.
Importantly, the community model will also provide the opportunity for a CuddleCot to support families who wish to take their baby home, where this can be facilitated.
What began as an idea to improve the information available to British Armed Forces families has developed into a much wider programme of bereavement care improvement.
Through this collaboration, CuddleCot and SSAFA are bringing together family information, professional education, pathway development, practical memory-making resources and access to specialist cooling equipment to strengthen several different aspects of the bereavement journey.
At the heart of the project is a simple principle: wherever a family is stationed in the world, they should be able to access compassionate, informed and family-centred care when their baby dies.
We are incredibly proud to be working together on this special Baby Loss Awareness Week collaboration and look forward to sharing more about the project, the people involved and its impact throughout Baby Loss Awareness Week 2026 and beyond.
Connect with Sian on Linkedin or email sian.ness@cuddlecot.com