In order to help the parents of stillborn babies grieve and make them feel less isolated they needed more recognition that their babies were alive. For that we needed to start a national conversation that helped us be more mindful of the 4,3%* of births in Belgium that are stillborn. This could only be achieved by starting an authentic, nationwide conversation that triggered empathy and showed what it is truly like to lose a baby before it’s even born.

*https://statbel.fgov.be/nl/themas/bevolking/sterfte-en-levensverwachting/foeto-infantiele-sterfte#:~:text=In%202020%20werden%20494%20kinderen,doodgeboorten%20daalde%20in%20alle%20gewesten. Official numbers for 2020 (last known year)

In Belgium 4,3%* of births are stillbirths. Losing your child is the worst thing a parent can imagine. But for parents of stillborn babies the grief is complicated as they have very little of their children to remember them by. They also feel they can’t always talk about it with their surroundings, as other people may find it hard to imagine the connection parents already had with their unborn child.

According to the grief counselors of Child and Family, a governmental agency for child wellbeing, parents can be helped in their grieving process by recognizing the existence of their baby. How? By holding onto details like weight, length, ultrasound pictures or anything that else they can remember their baby by. But unfortunately, during pregnancy there isn’t much to hold onto.

*https://statbel.fgov.be/nl/themas/bevolking/sterfte-en-levensverwachting/foeto-infantiele-sterfte#:~:text=In%202020%20werden%20494%20kinderen,doodgeboorten%20daalde%20in%20alle%20gewesten. Official numbers for 2020 (last known year)

In order to give parents of stillborn babies something to hold onto in their grief and remember their babies, we wanted to give them back the most emotional memory they have of their babies: hearing their heartbeat for the first time.

In Belgium these heartbeats are data registered on ultrasound pictures and logged in the database of the hospital, only stored for medical reasons. When a baby is stillborn, parents never hear the heartbeat of their baby again. They have no memory left of when their baby was alive.

We found a way to reconstruct these heartbeats and bring it back to the parents.

Shortest Lives is a serene audio-visual reproduction of a stillborn baby’s heartbeat. It's proof that your stillborn baby actually existed and offers a new and personalised way of grieving. It's a powerful memory parents can relive whenever they want and can share with friends and family.

In Belgium we don’t talk about the 4,3%* of births that are stillborn. This makes parents feel isolated in their grief. There is still a taboo because people find it difficult to consider these babies were already alive. The PR strategy of Shortest Lives aimed at creating more awareness and compassion for parents of stillborn babies. The key PR insight was that we empathize more when we can personally relate to the experience portrayed. That’s why our storytelling focused on the similarities between the experience and emotions of parents of stillborn babies and any other parent-to-be. In order to be as authentic as possible we collaborated closely with parents of stillborn babies , the University Hospital of Ghent and Berrefonds, the leading foundation that helps parents of stillborn babies and have them break out the news.

*https://statbel.fgov.be/nl/themas/bevolking/sterfte-en-levensverwachting/foeto-infantiele-sterfte#:~:text=In%202020%20werden%20494%20kinderen,doodgeboorten%20daalde%20in%20alle%20gewesten. Official numbers for 2020 (last known year)

Instead of organising a traditional press conference, we held a panel discussion with gynecologists, psychologists and parents of stillborn children. Everything was centered around the personal stories of the parents and the main focus was on the reconstructed heartbeats of stillborn babies, the undeniable sign of life. This human approach made it interesting for the press to talk and write about. They shared our stories and the heartbeats helped us achieve our goal to help to raise awareness about the pain and grief of parents that lose children before they are born. Using the serenity and credibility of press, parents felt comfortable to talk openly about their experience expecting this new life in the same way every other parent- to-be is. For the authenticity of our storytelling we made sure the stories were launched by the University Hospital of Ghent and Berrefonds,the leading foundation that helps parents of stillborn babies.

Our PR approach aimed at triggering empathy by showing how relatable the feelings of parents of stillborn babies are. We wanted a new awareness for the grief of the parents of still born babies, putting their grief on the same level of parents that lose a child that is already born. We also wanted to communicate that Shortest Lives is a new way of grieving.

- Shortest Lives had 4,99M earned impressions within the first week of the initiative.

- Immediately after the launch there have been 223 requests by parents of stillborn babies to receive a personalized heartbeat of their baby.

- Of all the parents who already received the heartbeat of their stillborn baby, 3 out of 4 shared it with friends and family, thus creating more awareness for the subject and helping to break the taboo.

- 86% of the parents who already received the heartbeat of their stillborn baby, said it helped them in their mourning process.

- Today, 1 in 3 of the parents whose baby was stillborn in 2022, already filed a request to receive their baby’s heartbeat.

- Other hospitals in Belgium and abroad have reached out to offer this service to their patients as well.

Belgians are reserved. They don’t grieve in public. Grief counselors that have accompanied parents of stillborn babies during the days of the stillbirth witness an additional difficulty to grieve because the existence of their babies isn’t acknowledged. They are not considered to be on the same level as parents that have lost a child that was already born. They don’t have many memories and their friends and family never got to meet the baby.

A lot of stillborn babies also didn’t exist legally. In neighboring country The Netherlands, the law does allow to register stillborn babies at an earlier stage of the pregnancy than Belgium. This means it’s harder for Belgian parents to grieve. They can’t even take official grieving time off.