Kym Marsh among parents cherishing new baby loss certificates

Others said they will be applying after waiting for recognition of their losses for years.

Baroness Floella Benjamin, who advocated for the certificates in the House of Lords, said she would be applying for the three babies she lost – the first 40 years ago.

“I think about them all the time when it comes to that certain time of year,” she told BBC Breakfast.

“The grief never leaves you.”

Baroness Benjamin said the certificates matter not only to women, but also to men, as she and her husband “used to cry together when I went through a loss”.

At the time, she had to put on a happy face as the presenter of a children’s TV programme, while grieving inside, she remembered.

She said she tried to make a programme about baby loss four decades ago, but “no one wanted to know, it was a taboo subject even though I know millions of other women like myself have gone through or are going through it”.

Zoe Clark-Coates, who lost five babies, also said she would now be applying for the certificates after spending nearly 10 years campaigning on behalf of others.

The founder of the Saying Goodbye charity began advocating for certificates after hearing from parents who said it would help in their grieving process.

“So many people who go through baby loss have no recognition, no acknowledgement that their baby existed,” she told BBC Breakfast.

“They want something to keep in their family records, for future generations, to be able to see their child was here, even though they didn’t get to stay.”

“It’s a really pivotal moment for people, whether they’ve lost their babies yesterday or 80 years ago, who can finally apply for a certificate,” she added to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

Marsh, who still mourns her son Archie, said official physical documentation is “massively part of the grieving process”, making loss more real and helping you to acknowledge and accept.

“Because he was our child, and he matters just as much as the ones that are lucky enough to be here do,” she said.

“A loss is a loss and they were our children.”