Members of the Pregnancy Loss Research Group attended and presented at the UCC College of Medicine and Health (CoMH) Futures Research Conference on 21 September.

Congratulations to Caroline Joyce who recently obtained Fellowship (by examination) of the Royal College of Pathologists London.

Congratulations to Marita Hennessy PhD who was recently awarded a Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Fellowship by the Irish Research Council (IRC). During her two-year fellowship, Marita will develop and pilot test a psychosocial intervention for staff in maternity hospitals/units in Ireland under the mentorship of Professor Keelin O’Donoghue.

The TEARDROP has become the recognised symbol of pregnancy loss at Cork University Maternity Hospital. Initially designed in 2009 as a communication tool for multidisciplinary staff to alert colleagues when a pregnancy loss had occurred, the TEARDROP has evolved from a discreet alert symbol to one which promotes excellence in perinatal bereavement care.

Ruadh Kelly-Harrington attended and presented at the International Conference for Parental Policies and Supports at St John of York University, York on 20 and 21 July 2023.

Marita Hennessy attended the Broadly Conceived Conference 2023 at Birkbeck, University of London on 08 July 2023. She presented work from the PLATFORM project titled “It makes people uncomfortable”: How can we get pregnancy loss research evidence into policy and practice?” in a panel session on pregnancy loss.

Professor Keelin O’Donoghue and Marita Hennessy PhD attended the 16^th Health Services Research UK Annual Conference at the University of Birmingham from 04-07 July 2023, presenting work from a range of projects undertaken by the Pregnancy Loss Research Group.

Professor Keelin O’Donoghue was awarded the International Stillbirth Alliance (ISA) Distinguished Researcher Award for her contribution or her contribution to research on stillbirth/newborn death. The award was conferred at the closing ceremony of the 2023 conference, hosted at the University of Sheffield from 30 June to 02 July.

Members of the Pregnancy Loss Research Group (PLRG) attended the International Stillbirth Alliance (ISA) Conference 2023 at The University of Sheffield from 30 June to 02 July, showcasing a variety of work through invited, oral and poster presentations.

Members of the Pregnancy Loss Research Group participated in the COMET Conference, held at University College Cork from 20-22 June.

Marita Hennessy PhD presented an overview of the Group’s recently published graphic narrative “Why my baby died” at the Irish Hospice Foundation (IHF) Arts and Creative Engagement Roundtable Gathering on 15 June.

Sinead Harkin, second year graduate entry medical student at University College Cork, begins her Health Research Board (HRB) Summer Student Scholarship with the Pregnancy Loss Research Group today.

Tamara Escañuela Sánchez presented her latest study on behaviour change interventions for stillbirth at the Annual Psychology, Health, and Medicine Conference, organised by the Health Psychology Division of The Psychological Society of Ireland, last month.

In recognition of his outstanding commitment to spiritual and pastoral care and education in perinatal bereavement and palliative care, Dr Daniel Nuzum, recently received a Civic Award from the Lord Mayor of Cork, Councillor Deirdre Forde.

The Pregnancy Loss Research Group has curated the production of a graphic narrative in collaboration with Amy Lauren, an illustrator based in Dublin, to show bereaved parents’ views and experiences of hospital processes to find out why their baby died. The project was funded through an Irish Hospice Foundation Seed Grant, with the support of the Creative Ireland Programme.

In an opinion piece in today’s Irish Times, Professor Keelin O’Donoghue outlines why we do a disservice to all when we don’t talk about pregnancy loss.

Caroline Joyce, Clinical Biochemist and PhD Student, recently presented her work on the use of capillary blood collection for human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG) analysis in early pregnancy at the 11^th European Organisation for Treatment of Trophoblastic Diseases (EOTTD) Meeting.

The results of the National Maternity Bereavement Experience Survey 2022 were published on Thursday, 18 May 2023.

Researchers from the Pregnancy Loss Research Group participated in the College of Medicine and Health’s ‘Bright Futures – Celebrating our Researchers’ Day on 26 March 2023. Organised by Professor Yvonne Nolan, Vice Dean of Graduate Studies, UCC Medicine and Health, the event gave early career researchers across the College an opportunity to showcase and celebrate their research and innovation.

On Wednesday, 3^rd May 2023, the Pregnancy Loss Research Group launched a new website, showcasing over ten years of pregnancy loss research in Ireland.

On 18 April 2023, PLRG members travelled to University Hospital Galway (UHG) to facilitate the roll-out of TEARDROP (Teaching, Excellent, pArent, peRinatal, Deaths-related, inteRactions, tO, Professionals) across the Saolta Hospital Group.

Dr Katie Togher recently presented her work on “First Trimester Termination of Pregnancy in Ireland: a retrospective review of the first three years of service at one tertiary maternity unit” at the Trinity Health and Education International Research Conference (THEconf2023).

Members of the Pregnancy Loss Research Group attended the SPHeRE Network 9^th Annual Conference at the RCSI, Dublin on Thursday, 23 March 2023.

Congratulations to Tamara Escañuela Sánchez who successfully defended her PhD on Wednesday, 22 March.

Members of the Pregnancy Loss Research Group attended the 43^rd Annual Pregnancy Meeting of the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine in San Francisco, California from 6-11 February 2023.

The Pregnancy Loss Research Group is currently inviting applicants for a PhD Scholarship funded by Féileacáin (The Stillbirth and Neonatal Death Association of Ireland). The project is titled ‘The Coronial Investigation into Perinatal Deaths – impacts on Coroners, bereaved parents, healthcare professionals and the community’.

The successful candidate will be working under the supervision of Professor Keelin O’Donoghue within the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and in collaboration with the project members from the National Perinatal Epidemiology Centre and the School of Law.

Led by Professor Keelin O’Donoghue, researchers from the Pregnancy Loss Research Group at Cork University Maternity Hospital and University College Cork and University of Galway are examining workplace experiences of people who have had a pregnancy loss. The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth has commissioned the PLACES (Pregnancy Loss in Workplaces) project to establish whether policy interventions are required in the workplace to better support people following pregnancy loss under 24 weeks’ gestation.