The Australian bereavement-services landscape for pregnancy and infant loss is small but specialised. Three organisations cover almost every need, and they coordinate with each other rather than compete.
This guide is the practical map — what each does, when to call which.
Sands Australia
Sands Australia is the dedicated organisation for pregnancy and infant loss support in Australia. It runs the longest-standing peer-support network in this space, started by parents who experienced loss themselves.
Support line: 1300 072 637 (Mon-Fri 9am-9pm AEST; Sat-Sun 9am-5pm AEST).
What's available:
- Telephone peer support with someone who has experienced loss
- Online and in-person support groups, including for dads and partners
- Bereavement information packs (sent by post or available as PDF)
- A list of Sands-trained hospital bereavement midwives by region
- An annual remembrance event in October (Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month)
Who calls Sands: parents at any point — the same day, a month later, decades later. Grandparents, siblings of the baby, friends of the family. There is no gestational-age threshold and no time-since-loss cut-off.
Red Nose Grief and Loss
Red Nose Grief and Loss is the bereavement arm of Red Nose. It covers stillbirth, neonatal death, SIDS, and the death of a child up to age 6.
Support line: 1300 308 307 — 24 hours a day, every day of the year. This is the only round-the-clock bereavement line for pregnancy and infant loss in Australia.
What's available:
- 24/7 phone counselling with bereavement-trained counsellors
- Up to 12 free counselling sessions per family (phone or in-person where available)
- Peer-support groups
- A library of bereavement resources written by AU clinicians
- Specific resources for siblings, including age-appropriate explanations for children
Who calls Red Nose Grief and Loss: anyone affected, at any time. The 24/7 line is often the first call after a 3am wakeup with grief.
PANDA — Perinatal Anxiety and Depression Australia
PANDA supports the mental-health dimension of perinatal experiences, including pregnancy loss, postnatal depression, anxiety in pregnancy, and birth trauma.
Support line: 1300 726 306 (Mon-Sat 9am-7:30pm AEST; closed Sundays and public holidays).
What's available:
- Helpline staffed by counsellors trained in perinatal mental health
- A self-checklist to help recognise when grief has tipped into clinical depression or anxiety
- Information about Medicare-rebated mental-health plans via your GP for longer-term support
- A directory of perinatal mental-health professionals around Australia
When PANDA may be the right call: if the grief is sitting alongside any of the following — persistent intrusive thoughts, sleep loss not explained by a newborn or physical recovery, panic episodes, thoughts of self-harm, an inability to look after yourself or your other children, or if you had a pre-existing anxiety or depression diagnosis that has flared since the loss.
Lifeline — for crisis moments
If you are in immediate distress and the services above are not open, Lifeline runs a 24/7 crisis line on 13 11 14. They are not pregnancy-specific but they are crisis-trained and they will not rush the call.
In a medical emergency (severe bleeding, severe pain, suicidal thoughts you cannot manage alone), call 000.
A practical note on what these services give you
None of the people on these lines will rush you. None of them will try to fix the grief. Some calls last five minutes. Some last an hour. There is no script you need to follow before calling, and no level of distress you have to reach before you're "allowed" to ring.
If the first call doesn't feel like the right fit, ring a different service the next day. The three organisations refer to each other often.