Who is attending the Sands Conference this year??

Its at the Waipuna Lodge in Auckland on the 7th and 8th of August.

I am planning on attending would be so nice to meet some of you there!!

I will definitely be there as I am on the organising committee! It will be lovely to meet you. We have some fantastic workshops in the pipeline.

Here's a bit more information on what the conference is about:

‘A little life, not a little loss’
Sands Conference 2009 - hosted by Sands Auckland Central
Friday 7th & Saturday 8th August 2009, Waipuna Hotel & Conference Centre
58 Waipuna Road, Mt Wellington, Auckland 1741

The biennial national Sands conference is a forum for health/caring professionals and bereaved
parents/families to come together, to share information & experiences of baby loss. Our conference will be an educational programme seeking to raise awareness and promote understanding of baby loss. It will be an excellent opportunity to share knowledge and to listen and meet with others who may share similar jobs/experiences. We aim to promote a better understanding of the short and long term effects of grief following the loss of a baby. We hope you will gain knowledge and skills that may be drawn upon in your working or your personal lives.

The first day of the conference will begin with a remembrance service for our babies.

Some of the seminars/workshops that we are hoping to coordinate are:-
Information/Education/Discussion Sessions on
Grief – What is it? Why do we all ‘do it’ differently?: PMMRC (Perinatal & Maternal Mortality Review Committee): Genetic Counselling: TASS (The Auckland Stillbirth Study): Funerals for Babies: NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit): Midwifery Care: Obstetric Care: Care for Parents & Families experiencing early pregnancy loss/Miscarriage Support: Twin/Multiple Birth Loss: ‘Precious Lives, Painful Choices’: Selfcare – How to?: Listening skills – Guidance in effectively listening and offering support to grieving parents and families: Maternity Social Workers and/or Counselling for Maternity needs & grief

Parents Panel
This panel will be set up to provide health and caring professionals with an opportunity to hear parents’ stories (briefly!) and to ask questions of them. We know that all parents have different stories and grieve uniquely but through our panel we will aim to provide a broad range of experiences for health/caring professionals to learn from.

Supervision & Support Groups
This idea is still in the very early stages – 1) We are looking into providing health/caring professionals with the opportunity to attend a professionally led discussion on their own experiences of grief derived from direct contact with bereaved families and their children – please let us know if this is something you may be interested in. 2) We hope to provide an opportunity for bereaved parents, who may or may not have access to local support groups, with the chance to attend a group session that is facilitated by an experienced grief worker and co-facilitated by a Sands support person.

If anyone would like some more information and a registration form, please send me a PM and I'll email it to you, or you can ask any questions on this discussion thread.

I might be interested, it's my birthday on the 8th but I think that might be something I'd like to do, not sure how the friday would work with the kids, but it's a while away. It'd be really great to see some TLO girls there

It'd be great to see you there Manda. There is an option of only attending one day if you can't manage both. Like you said, you still have plenty of time to decide There is a small discount for Sands members.

Hi Alana,

I would have loved to have come, however if everything goes to plan I will probably still be in hospital on those dates, or maybe just getting home

I hope it all goes well and will be thinking of you all. I have missed the Sands meetings this year, but am looking rather pg so I feel it is better to stay away for now.

Take Care

Wow Alana sounds like there is alot going on over that weekend!!

I have been asked to do the Training on the Thrusday also as im one of the contact people for the Taranaki. So I guess I will have go up on the Wednesday and stay till the Saturday. I have a few months to sort it all out.

Vanessa if you are in Auckland or North Shore Hospital would so love to come and visit you and say hi and meet your new bubba!! It will be sooo good to finally put some faces to some names on here.