Parent Supporter Training

In Australia each year over 3,200 families experience the sudden and unexpected death of a baby or child, during pregnancy, birth, infancy or childhood during the first four years of life.

Sadly for many of these deaths there is no known cause. For example, more than half the deaths of unborn babies during the last eight weeks of pregnancy each year are unexplained.

Red Nose Grief and Loss works to find answers for parents by funding and supporting vital research into Sudden Unexplained Death in Infants (including SIDS), Stillbirth and Safe Sleeping Practices. Through evidence-based community education we aim to prevent these deaths and we advocate for and support bereaved families.

Peer/Parent Supporters (PS) play a vital role in the delivery of our services. Trained PSs offer a very special and personal service that can only be delivered by those parents who have directly experienced or been impacted themselves by the loss of a baby or child.

Training enhances and builds upon the existing knowledge and skills (experiential learning) acquired by those who have experienced the devastating impact of the death of a child.

Red Nose Grief and Loss relies almost totally on the support of the community, with trained PSs assisting the organization in many different ways.

We hope your participation in this training program will be personally and professionally rewarding.

As Jill says:

“Wanting to become a parent supporter is not a difficult decision to make, nor is it really our choice. We did not choose to become bereaved parents, to lose our child and to enter into a different world than that we had known. Walking down this new path was a natural progression of our grief… As a bereaved parent you know and can empathise (with) how another parent may feel after their child dies. It was my wish that no-one should ever be alone with the incredible pain of the death of their child. If I could be near and take away some of the pain I would. If I can listen to their crying, their memories, their guilt, their anger… I will. If I may somehow give them a little piece of hope that they may also survive and live once more… then I will. Do we become parent supporters to immortalize the memory of our child? I don’t think so. We do it in (their) memory, but more because we have chosen to want to just be there for others and to support them as we have been supported. You don’t want to live your grief through another … you just want to be able to stand by them if they want you to.” (Jill)

For information about our Peer Support Program contact Red Nose Grief and Loss on 1300 308 307.

Last reviewed: 27/4/24