Baby Loss Awareness Week, Thursday 9 to Wednesday 15 October 2025

After losing their only son Dante to stillbirth in April 2022, Gina and Peter Reeves (above) were signposted to charities to support them. However, they soon realised a safe space for the black community to talk about their loss was missing, so they created their own – Ebony Bonds.

It brings together those who have lost babies through events, including a big presence at Black baby Loss Awareness Week, held each May; one-to-one peer support, or just a simple check-in. There is also a WhatsApp group, so support is always at hand.

Gina, of Romford, said:

We wanted to do something within our community and realised the only way was to do it ourselves. We had an event in London in May 2024, mainly for our family to get together have a walk and talk before some food at a Caribbean restaurant. It grew beyond our expectations, 70 people came and they asked when our next event was.

We’ve built a community and it keeps growing. When we went through our loss, we didn’t have this. I’m happy I can help those who need support more than anything. I can’t bring my son back, so I do what I can to help someone else.

As well as losing Dante at 25 weeks, Gina has had five miscarriages, and she’s not alone. Studies have found black women are 43% more likely to miscarry than white women.

Dante was born at Queen’s Hospital and, having had a poor experience, including Gina not feeling listened to, the couple welcome that we are one of 14 trusts that will be part of an investigation, led by Baroness Amos, into maternity services in England.

Gina added:

We’ve been back in to meet the new team and have been shown some of the improvements which have been made.

We have a healthy relationship now and can see that working with the Maternity team can help make things better.

Peter is playing his own part in making things better for other black men, he’s set up support group NINE (a nod is not enough).

He said:

Black men often acknowledge each other with a nod, it means ‘I see you’ and we know the trauma and shared racial experiences behind it. But we need to go beyond just nodding and talk about the traumas to help heal.

Ebony Bonds, will be among the speakers at our maternity bereavement team’s first webinar, held on Thursday 23 October, to join email bhrut.bereavementmid@nhs.net.

Find Ebony Bonds and NINE on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ebonybondsupport/, https://www.instagram.com/nod_is_not_enough/.

Anyone affected by baby loss is welcome to attend a remembrance service in the Education Centre at Queen’s Hospital on Friday 10 October, from 6.30 to 7pm. You can also attend virtually via Microsoft Teams. (Meeting ID: 330 082 888 442 3 and passcode: KZ7G2VG7.)