Baby loss awareness and the workplace

About this event

This online event offers a compassionate and thoughtful look at how organisations can support employees facing baby loss.

This online event is being hosted Siobhan Clarke , York Group Lead and Friends Lead of the CIPD Branch in North Yorkshire. Working in collaboration with our neighbouring branches in West Yorkshire, Humber and South Yorkshire & District, the event is open to members and non-members, regardless of location.

Baby Loss Awareness Week is a time for reflection, understanding, and support. We know that the pain of baby loss is deeply personal, often invisible, and too frequently left unspoken - particularly in the workplace. This special online event aims to create a compassionate and thoughtful space for exploring how organisations can better support employees who experience baby loss in any form.

We’re thankful to our guest speaker Katy Schnitzler from the Miscarriage Association, who will talk about the emotional and practical impacts of miscarriage and share guidance on how workplaces can respond with empathy and understanding.

We also hope to share a few short anonymous reflections from individuals who have experienced baby loss, highlighting the real and varied impact it can have in a work setting.

Marie Horner from ALT Legal will offer a legal perspective, outlining current employee rights, potential future changes in legislation, and guidance on what “doing the right thing” looks like from an HR standpoint.

There’ll be opportunity for Q&A at the end of seach speaker slot.

We are deeply grateful to those supporting this event and helping to shine a light on a topic that deserves awareness, empathy, and understanding in every workplace.

We appreciate that this event covers sensitive and potentially triggering content. If you are affected by anything included above or on the event, support is available through the following organisations:

• Miscarriage Association
• Sands (Stillbirth and Neonatal Death Charity)
• Tommy’s
• Petals (The Baby Loss Counselling Charity)
• Aching Arms
• The Lullaby Trust
• CIPD Members can also access support through CIPD’s well-being service

Guest speakers

Katy Schnitzler: Information, Training and Research Lead - Miscarriage Association.

Katy has collaborated with numerous organisations to raise awareness of, and to improve practice in, the area of pregnancy loss at work. Katy's extensive knowledge and experience informs her training delivery, including findings from her own PhD, which investigates the lived experiences of miscarriage in the world of work.

Prior to her role at the Miscarriage Association, Katy worked as an academic for over a decade, specialising in health, business and psychology. Katy has taught across degree and Masters level programmes and continues to conduct research on reproductive health at work across universities.

Marie Horner: Secialist Employment Law solicitor - ALT Legal, and a committee member for the CIPD Branch in North Yorkshire.

Marie is an experienced specialist solicitor advising on all aspects of employment law from defence of employment tribunal claims, business restructures, TUPE obligations, redundancy, data protection, executive terminations, settlement agreements, discrimination, and whistleblowing through to more day-to-day HR issues such as performance management, disciplinary processes and handling absenteeism.

She is a regular speaker at events and conferences and experienced in-house trainer for management workshops.

Marie is a member of the Employment Lawyers Association and the Industrial Law Society, and an Associate Member of the CIPD with an advanced level certificate in HR management.

Specialties: Employment law and HR, public speaking, training.

Please note:

1. Webinar joining instructions will be sent to you again 1 day before the event, with a further reminder 20 minutes prior to the event starting.
2. The session may be recorded and shared with people afterwards. Please bear this in mind and have your camera off if you do not wish for your image to be shared.
3. The chat function will be used for participants to engage with the webinar, so just be mindful of the login name you use and ensure you are happy for other people to see this.
4. For security reasons, it is requested that participants join the live session 10 minutes prior to the scheduled start time and with the same name as registered on Eventbrite - not doing so may cause a delay or non-admittance to the event.
5. This event may include an external speaker who has prepared their own presentation. Any views or opinions expressed by the speaker are their own and do not reflect those of the CIPD.
6. If you require any reasonable adjustments to enhance your experience, please get in contact with us by responding to this email and we will do our best to accommodate.