Petals (Pregnancy Expectations Trauma and Loss Society) is a charity that provides specialised counselling to support families experiencing trauma or loss during pregnancy and birth. Established in Cambridge in 2013, Petals now offers counselling in Cambridge, London, Oxford, and Ipswich. Over the past 4 years Petals has supported more than 1,000 women/couples, and 95% of clients reported improvement in their mental health and wellbeing. 

We now aim to expand this successful service to support parents at the Princess Alexandra Hospital (PAH - Harlow) – but WE REALLY NEED YOUR HELP to raise the £15,000 needed to achieve this goal. The money will be used to train 2 Petals approved counsellors, and to establish the counselling service at PAH during the first year. We anticipate that other sources of funding will become available after this time.   

From a client... "Petals has been supporting us for the  5 months since our precious daughter died during labour. We have found the counselling sessions invaluable and we would have been so lost without them. We were able to see a counsellor within 2 weeks of our daughters death - talking through our feelings has been very important as our emotions have been so strong and often conflicting, confusing and uncomfortable. Its  reassuring to know that some of what we are experiencing is a 'normal' part of grief. Losing a baby is such a unique experience and very different from any other grief - this is why PETALS specially trained counsellors are so important. Although at times the sessions are exhausting due to the extreme emotional content, we take comfort from them. Its an opportunity to talk about our daughter and use her name, something that unfortunately we don't seem to be able to do in the 'real world'. Having a PETALS counsellor in Essex would make this valuable service more accessible for bereaved parents like us, who currently have to travel to Cambridge to access this service."