Gracefully is an app that’s currently being developed as part of a Ripple Scale Challenge cohort.
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Gracefully

Bereavement care after pregnancy and baby loss remains inconsistent. Gracefully is being built to help maternity staff feel prepared for the moments that matter most.

Pregnancy and baby loss can have a profound and lasting impact on families. Despite national bereavement-care guidance, experiences following pregnancy and baby loss remain inconsistent. Research shows that maternity professionals can feel underprepared for the emotional and practical demands of supporting grieving families, while some parents describe feeling unsupported or dismissed at an extraordinarily vulnerable time.

Pregnancy and baby loss can be followed by lasting grief, anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress symptoms. Providing this care can also take a significant emotional toll on staff, particularly when training and organisational support are limited. Yet bereavement education is not always consistently embedded within maternity training or protected professional-development time.

Lauren Caulfield is a third-year student midwife, an NHS Clinical Entrepreneur Fellow, and a bereaved mother. She brings something no amount of professional expertise alone can provide: the firsthand knowledge of what it feels like when care falls short, and an unshakeable conviction that it does not have to.

Gracefully is being developed as a digital education app to help people working in maternity services build the knowledge, practical skills and confidence needed to provide compassionate, evidence-informed bereavement care.

“I want bereavement care to become a core part of every maternity professional’s education, rather than something staff are expected to learn only when they find themselves facing it. My hope is that Gracefully helps every family experiencing loss feel met with confidence, compassion and dignity from the people caring for them.”

The initial app will include structured educational modules aligned with the National Bereavement Care Pathway, scenario-based communication training, practical guidance on what to say, step-by-step videos on memory making, quick-reference tools for use during clinical work, staff wellbeing resources and quizzes to support learning.

The content and design have been informed by input from charities, NHS staff, midwifery students and parents, helping Gracefully combine national guidance with the realities of both delivering and receiving bereavement care.

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FOUNDER

Lauren Caulfield
Student Midwife and NHS Clinical Entrepreneur | Founder, Gracefully

Lauren Caulfield is a third-year student midwife, an NHS Clinical Entrepreneur Fellow, and a bereaved mother. She brings to Gracefully the firsthand knowledge of what it feels like when bereavement care falls short, and an unshakeable conviction that it does not have to.

Lauren has extensive clinical experience in maternity services and has co-produced educational materials within NHS England and a local NHS Trust. She has led the design, development, and content creation of Gracefully, collaborating with charities, NHS staff, midwifery students, and families to ensure the app is both practically useful and deeply human.

In 2026, Lauren received the Royal College of Midwives’ award for Outstanding Contribution to Pregnancy Loss and Bereavement Care.

References

  • The UK Government estimates that around 250,000 pregnancies end in miscarriage each year, affecting approximately one in five women. This figure relates to miscarriage, not every form of pregnancy and baby loss. [Source]

  • The National Bereavement Care Pathway was itself introduced to improve the consistency and quality of care after pregnancy or baby loss. Its evaluations examined whether families received more consistent care and whether staff felt better supported. [Source]

  • A recent systematic review also found wide geographical variation in pregnancy-loss support, including provision of bereavement midwives, formal training and community follow-up. [Source]

  • The Royal College of Midwives has also highlighted the importance of training and reported that many midwives were expected to complete bereavement training in their own time. [Source]

  • A recent systematic review of obstetricians’ experiences found a lack of perinatal-loss training and significant emotional effects on professionals providing care. [Source]

  • Evidence supports significant emotional effects on healthcare professionals caring for families after stillbirth or perinatal loss. [Source]

  • There is evidence that some bereaved parents report poor, insensitive or inconsistent care. Sands’ surveys include accounts of families feeling unsupported, forgotten or losing trust in services following poor experiences. [Source]

  • Systematic reviews link pregnancy loss and stillbirth with grief, depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress symptoms, sometimes persisting over time. [Source]

  • The RCM has publicly argued that bereavement care should form part of every midwife’s training. [Source]