Baby Loss Awareness Week 2025 will be observed from 9–15 October, a national initiative of remembrance for families who have experienced the heartbreaking loss of a baby.
Archbishop John Sherrington (Lead Bishop for Life Issues) and Bishop Bosco MacDonald (Lead Bishop for Marriage and Family Life) have issued a joint statement inviting Catholic parishes to commemorate the week and support grieving parents.
They write:
“Baby Loss Awareness Week is an opportunity to pause and acknowledge the deep sorrow suffered by parents who have experienced the loss of a baby, especially through miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, or stillbirth and infant loss. Each of these losses involves the death of a small child and the parents need our compassion and support through their bereavement. It is an opportunity for prayer.”
The bishops encourage parishes to offer spaces of prayer and remembrance, including Masses, liturgical memorials, time before the Blessed Sacrament, and the lighting of candles. They add:
“These acts help affirm the dignity and innocence of the child and support you in your journey of grief and healing.”
Quoting Psalm 139, they remind the faithful:
“‘You formed my inmost being; you knit me in my mother’s womb.’ During this ‘Baby Loss Week’, let us remember all babies who have died before birth or in infancy and the families who mourn them. May they find comfort in the hope of eternal life and in the tender mercy of God, who knows each child by name and holds them in His embrace.”
The Church assures parents that their loss is not carried alone. Around one in five pregnancies in England and Wales ends in miscarriage, and many families suffer in silence. The bishops highlight the consolation offered through the Church’s pastoral care, including the celebration of Funeral Masses and memorial services for babies lost before or after birth.
“We encourage parishes to make known that a Funeral Mass or an appropriate memorial service can be offered for a baby lost at any stage of pregnancy. This is not only a way of entrusting the child to God’s loving care, but also a source of consolation and spiritual comfort for grieving parents,” the bishops said.
Baby Loss Awareness Week is therefore both a time of national remembrance and an invitation for the Church to walk alongside parents in their grief, offering compassion, prayer, and the hope of eternal life.
