13 August 2025
This year National Rainbow Baby Day takes place on 22 August 2025. A ‘Rainbow Baby’ is a child born after a family loses a baby and this special child is often seen a symbol of new hope for a family that has experienced such traumatic loss. Established in 2018, National Rainbow Baby Day honours those babies lost to stillbirth, miscarriage, complications during pregnancy or following birth, all the while celebrating the Rainbow Babies who bring such joy to the lives of their family and parents. National Rainbow Baby Day is an opportunity for families to reflect on their children, those who are with them physically, and those who will forever be with them in spirit.
How Common is Baby Loss?
Losing a child is the most traumatic experience any parent can go through, and, according to the NHS, 1 in 8 known pregnancies ends in miscarriage and 1 in 250 pregnancies ends in stillbirth.
As such, prospective parents should be aware of the risks and the statistics, and they should, if the unthinkable does happen, be ready and able to support each other and themselves. It is strongly advised, especially for single parents, to have effective support networks which can offer emotional and psychological reinforcement.
How Can Families Move Forward?
Despite these daunting statistics, prospective parents and those trying to conceive again should maintain hope and keep in mind that, according to the American Pregnancy Association, 75% of birthing people who have had two or more losses go on to successfully give birth to a Rainbow Baby. The numbers rise to 85% for those birthing people who have suffered a single miscarriage.
However, having a Rainbow Baby often leads to conflicting emotions. Many parents may feel guilty for trying to conceive again, for having another child or especially for learning to love their new Rainbow Baby after the loss of a child. Many parents report feeling as if loving a Rainbow Baby is a betrayal of their lost child, as if it means that they are being forgotten. The term Rainbow Baby therefore therefore helps convey that a new pregnancy or child follows a loss and it helps express the complicated emotions that surround this.
It is also for this reason that National Rainbow Baby Day was founded – to provide parents with an opportunity to reflect on their new family and grieve and mourn their lost child without forgetting them; to honour their memory and the part they played in the formation of their family. Beyond this, National Rainbow Baby Day gives families the chance to celebrate the Rainbow Baby themselves, to recognise the joy they have brought into the lives of those around them.
Specialist Fertility and Family Law
Many Rainbow Babies are the result of fertility treatment, donor conception, surrogacy or adoption. These are processes which allow those who have lost babies and/or pregnancies to reconnect with their family building wishes and restore their confidence in their fertility options and pathways to parenthood. For those who have experienced baby loss, family building can bring a complex range of legal, medical and emotional challenges, all of which must be handled and navigated with care.
To find out more about Family Building Options and Law click here.
To find out more about Fertility Preservation Law click here.
To find out more about Fertility Treatment Law click here.
To find out more about Donor Conception and Co-Parenting Law click here.
To find our more about Surrogacy Law click here.
Specialist fertility and family law advice and guidance allows families in the most traumatic of circumstances to make informed decisions about their options and the legal implications of their situations, allowing them a sense of calm as they take their next steps towards parenthood. It provides legal and practical strategies to effectively plan fertility and preconception, pregnancy, birth and family life. It identifies and addresses a range of legal and wider issues and challenges associated with family creation and fertility treatment, putting family building and life on a firm foundation and maximising successful results, including:
- Legal issues and family building options due to impaired fertility (including cancer diagnosis), unsuccessful conception or pregnancy loss, age-related fertility decline, change in gender, delayed parenthood.
- Complex personal and family situations.
- Unexpected death of a loved-one and issues associated with posthumous storage and use of eggs, sperm and embryos in fertility treatment, donor conception/surrogacy (e.g. due to an accident or illness).
- Legal issues and options associated with assisted conception involving a surrogate, donor, co-parent or an ex-partner (e.g. legal parentage, parental rights, financial responsibility and dispute mitigation).
- Legal and wider aspects of international surrogacy or a UK surrogacy arrangement.
- Difficulties with storage and use of frozen eggs, sperm and embryos in fertility treatment and surrogacy in the UK (e.g. problems with consent).
- Issues with import of frozen gametes/embryos into the UK for use in fertility treatment and surrogacy (e.g. due to anonymous and commercially obtained gametes and embryos engaging UK public policy restrictions).
- Issues with the export of frozen gametes and embryos abroad for use in fertility treatment and surrogacy (e.g. consent and storage term difficulties).
- Legal and biological parentage issues and disputes (e.g. concerning DNA testing, direct-to-consumer genetic testing, rectification of birth certificate, declaration of parentage, step-parent adoption, recognition of overseas adoption, parental order following surrogacy).
- Care and upbringing of children following a dispute with an ex-partner, parent, donor or surrogate (e.g. contact, residence, financial arrangements, parental responsibility, specific issue or prohibited steps).
Are you looking to grow your family in the wake of issues of infertility or baby loss? If you are concerned with legal issues surrounding fertility, donor conception or surrogacy, and need specialist advice about the legal status, care and upbringing of a child, contact Louisa Ghevaert by email at louisa@louisaghevaertassociates.co.uk or by telephone at +44 (0)20 7965 8399.
Images: Louisa Ghevaert CEO & Founder Louisa Ghevaert Associates
To find out more about Louisa Ghevaert click here.
