A mum has told how she healed through gardening after experiencing baby loss and a miscarriage.

Kate Breen, who lives in Shipley with her husband and two children, is one of several parents behind a new baby loss memory garden coming to Northcliffe Park.

Nestled by the allotments, the “unloved” patch of land is being transformed into a space for reflection and charity events.

Behind each and every flower planted will be families who found their way after baby loss and benefitted from pregnancy loss charity, Sands.

Kate was full term when she found out her daughter Isobel’s heart had stopped in 2016.

Kate said: “We scattered her ashes in a place that’s special to us. We go every year on her birthday, July 29.

“About nine months later we got pregnant with our little boy who is four. I had a miscarriage in 2020 and subsequent pregnancy to that, born this February.

“I needed something to do with my time as I had to do something that wasn’t looking after a little person like I expected.

“I found gardening and connecting to nature a better thing to do.”

Kate added: “Our little girl would be six in July so she would have been in school for two years now.

“Grief doesn’t just stop just because you have other children who you love a lot, it doesn’t ever really replace that child you lost.

“It’s better to think about how you rebuild your life around grief. I always find July really difficult.”

Kate reached out for help and joined the Sunbeam Support Group, run by Airedale Midwives, who were renovating another memorial garden at the hospital.

Back in 2019, Kate’s friends at Northcliffe Park’s allotments told her about an unused space which patrons didn’t know what to do with.

Kate said: “It was unloved and a little bit forgotten about.”

Work and fundraising for a new community garden got underway - including Kate’s daily wild swimming challenge in May, just 11 weeks postpartum.

“Every time you have a new baby it reminds you again of what you lost,” Kate said.

“It brings it back up again, like ‘I never got to do this with my daughter or see her roll over’.

“Having a new baby, that’s an important time for some families to do something because it brings back that time you were expecting to bring a baby home but you’re planning a funeral.”

Kate raised £4,600 in total.

In a message to parents and wider family members struggling with baby loss, Kate said: “Grieve however you need to grieve. Develop whatever rituals you need to cope.”

  • The group gardens together on the first Saturday of the month between 10am to 12noon.
  • Sands runs a confidential helpline on 0808 164 3332
  • Links to helpful groups and resources can be found on its website, www.sands.org.uk