This month has been declared #FlamingJune by the #matexp campaign

People are taking action to improve maternity experiences for families

I am focusing on pregnancy, prematurity and loss

I am taking action to support bereaved families after the loss of a baby or child

Part of that action is to support and promote the work of babyloss charities

Those who have lost children themselves who now work to support others

Charities like the incredible Count The Kicks

This is the charity that supported me throughout my pregnancy

With Rainbow Baby Bea

They gave me the confidence to trust my body

They helped me get to know Bea and her movements

They held my hand

For 40 weeks

And I will always be very very grateful

Thank you Elizabeth

Thank you Count The Kicks

Q&A with Count The Kicks

Tell me about Count The Kicks, what do you do and why?
Count the Kicks works with mums-to-be across the UK providing them with knowledge and confidence throughout their pregnancy and helping to prevent stillbirth. Our aim is to raise awareness of the importance of monitoring your baby’s movements during birth and encouraging mums to be to seek the advice of a medical professional if they are at all concerned about their baby. Currently there are 16 babies stillborn every single day in the UK. The charity aims to reduce this number by at least a third.

The UK has the second worst stillbirth rate in the developed world currently ranking 33 out of 35 similar high income countries. Currently more babies die in the womb or first week of life than they do from cot death, road deaths and meningitis combined. While there isn’t one solution to reducing stillbirth, a decrease in fetal movement is a key warning sign that the baby is struggling in the womb and early delivery could save nearly a third of stillborn babies. The Confidential Enquiry into Stillbirths and Deaths in Infancy found that lack of prompt management to reduced fetal movement was a contributing factor to stillbirth.

How did your charity begin?
Count the Kicks was set up in 2009 by Sophia Wyatt following the stillbirth of her daughter Chloe following reduced movements. Determined to ensure more mums did not experience this tragedy, Count the Kicks was set up to educate mums on the importance of a baby’s movements and to help them work with healthcare professionals to bring home a healthy baby.

Can you describe a day in the life of your charity?
To sum it up in one word – varied! There are the lots of things that our small team need to keep on top of on a day-to-day basis, things such as accounting, social media and answering the large amount of queries that come through each day. In addition to that we exhibit at Baby Shows, midwifery conferences and attend meetings all around the UK for different stillbirth and maternity-related projects such as the Stillbirth Setting Priority Partnership. We are all parents first and foremost, so our days also consist of juggling numerous school runs, playdates, meals and consuming large amounts of tea, cake and Dr Pepper!

How can people donate?
There are many different ways to donate.
Donating online using JustGiving (www.justgiving.com/countthekicks) is really simple. UK tax payers can also select gift aid and we receive extra funds from the Government.

Donating by text message has become increasingly popular too and we have two dedicated text lines, one for one-off donations and another for a monthly subscription. Texting KICKS to 70660 makes a one-off £3 donation and texting COUNT to 70660 signs you up to a subscription programme for £3 a month. It’s important that the bill payer’s permission is obtained of course, and the monthly subscription can be easily cancelled by replying with a “STOP” text.

Lastly, cheques made out to “Count The Kicks” can be sent to our Fundraising Team at Count The Kicks, 221 Carters Mead, Harlow, Essex CM17 9EX.

What more can people do? How can we get involved?
Spread the word to anyone who will listen! There is often confusion because people are given conflicting advice on their baby’s movements and they don’t know who or what to believe. Awareness is at the heart of our campaign so we need to reach and educate as many people as possible. There are so many misconceptions around baby movements such as “baby runs out of room to move” or “it’s OK if your baby has moved 10 times in 24 hours”. Both these statements are incorrect and that is why it is so vital that people have the right information. Not only do pregnant women need to be in-the-know, anybody that a pregnant women would turn to for advice if they were worried about baby movements also need to be aware of the right recommendations – mums, partners, dads, friends – everyone!

Social media is a great way to spread this awareness, so sharing our information posts is greatly appreciated, or pointing people in the direction of our website or Facebook page. Let’s also not forget old-fashioned talking! Have a conversation about Count The Kicks – ask people if or what they know about the charity. Knowing how to correctly monitor baby movements is really empowering for expectant mums and giving someone that knowledge could be the greatest gift you ever give them.

You can also recycle your unwanted rubbish for Count the Kicks such as baby food pouches, second hand clothes, biscuit wrappers and much more. There are many people across the UK who collect recycling on our behalf and send it to Terracycle to keep it out of landfill and raise money for the charity. To find out if where you can recycle locally for us, you can search on the official Terracycle map of collectors: http://www.terracycle.co.uk/en-UK/pages/114.html

Any top tips for organising a good fundraising event?
Our supporters go to great lengths to help our charity raise the funds needed to keep our campaign going and we are so grateful for every penny raised and minute spent. Before organising an event it’s helpful to ask yourself the following questions – what, who, when, why and where? It’s a really good way to clarify ideas in your head and keep things organised from the get-go. Marketing your event could be key to its success too and we can help you with a press release for your local newspaper or radio station. Creating Facebook events usually generates interest, as does listing your event on local “What’s on Websites” such as mumsnet and wherecanwego. Our Fundraising Team are really knowledgeable about organising events so our biggest tip would be to contact them (fundraising@countthekicks.org.uk) and let them support you.

What is your charity’s biggest achievement to date?
We have had so many big achievements recently it is hard to pick one! Appearing on ITV’s “Surprise,Surprise” last year was a huge achievement and massive turning point for the charity in terms of creating awareness of our work. We also successfully managed to secure getting our leaflets into Bounty packs which is something we had been working towards for some time. I should also mention that we achieved a Guinness World Record last year for holding the largest tombola as part of our Teddy Bears Picnic Fund-raising event!

What do you hope to achieve in the short term?
Over the next 6 months we would like to reach 500,000 likers on facebook and distribute 2 million leaflets in order to continue to raise awareness of what we do and to make sure our message gets out to as many people as possible.

What are your dreams, long term goals for your charity?
Our goals for the charity are to reach every single pregnant woman every year with our information both in the UK and worldwide. Alongside this I want to see a drastic reduction in stillbirth rates over the next 5 years.

What is the one thing you wish people knew or understood about babyloss or grief?
That it is never ending. It doesn’t end with another baby or after a year or two, it is always with you. I cherish the anniversaries as it feels like that is a time I am allowed to grieve again, and maybe I will act a bit strange or be more quiet or do something out of the ordinary but people understand as it’s an anniversary. What I really wish they knew was that I feel like that nearly every day but it is less acceptable to express it.

Do you have a favourite quote or saying?
I have many! My all time favourite is probably “shoot for the moon, even if you miss you will land among the stars” This is a saying I live by and I think has helped make our charity such a success. I like to think big with the hope that we will get to close to that. So far all our big chances have paid off!

Who or what is your inspiration?
My initial inspiration came from my childhood friend Felicity. The story of her daughter Connie being stillborn at 42 weeks after reduced movement really broke my heart. Having recently lost a baby myself I was encompassed in my own grief but something about Connie’s story really got to me and made me get up and take action. But every day I am inspired by every woman who contacts us to say her baby was stillborn or who I read about. Knowing the grief she is going through, it breaks my heart that we weren’t able to save her from that pain. Every stillborn baby I hear about pushes me further and further to ensure we reach everyone and stop hearing the words “I wish I’d heard about you sooner.”

This month is #matexp month of action, where do you feel there are gaps in our maternity services?
Continuity of information is certainly a problem. We hear a lot of mums tell us they have been given conflicting information about their baby’s movements and this can lead to them to delay seeking help. Ideally we would like to ensure all medical staff give the most up to date and accurate information on fetal movements consistently.

What can we do to make pregnancy, birth and early parenting better for all?
Be more supportive of each other. Parents seem to be so competitive of what is right – breast feeding, bottle feeding, disposable nappies, cloth nappies, baby wearing, co-sleeping, I would like to see more support so people are supported in whatever decisions they make for their family. There is never going to be a one size fits all approach to parenting so I think we should stop trying to get other parents to think like us and instead support other parents choices.

What more can we do to support bereaved families? Pregnancy after loss?
There needs to be more awareness around the specific challenges of a pregnancy after loss throughout all medical staff caring for a pregnant woman. The type of care needed after a loss is very different to that of a normal pregnancy and adjustments need to be made to acknowledge that. More clinics like the Rainbow Clinic in Manchester would be hugely beneficial to provide specialised care for those having a rainbow baby. But this can be done on a smaller scale by ensuring midwives and Doctors have adequate training on providing care in a rainbow pregnancy.

Thank you so much to the lovely Elizabeth Hutton, CEO of Count The Kicks, for taking the time to answer my questions.

Elizabeth has written for Edspire before and the links to her fabulous posts are below.

Rainbow Pregnancy
Growing a Rainbow: How to Count The Kicks
Count The Kicks: How and Why It All Began

If you run or support a pregnancy or babyloss charity and would like to be featured in one of my Charity Chat posts, please get in touch. I would love to share the amazing work that you do.