We acknowledge the traditional lands on which you hold this guide, on the land your bub was born, and the lands you belong to. We acknowledge the Traditional Owners and pay respects to our Elders, past and present, acknowledging our continuing roles of being Caretaker and Custodian on the lands from which we are from
We acknowledge that you are currently in Sorry Business. We acknowledge the cultural roles and responsibilities this carries, and that this varies between Aboriginal groups all over the country
We respect your grief and honour your process through it.
Artist acknowledgement
We thank the artist, Wergaia and Gormanjanyuk woman Annie Joy, who sits in her very own dusty art studio out in the bush, painting to heal and share her stories. Her two pieces titled ‘Jiba Dreaming’ and ‘Waterholes’ are both pieces that reflect our spirit journey once we pass.
Acknowledgement of lived experience
We would like to acknowledge the families who lost their bubs. We see you and recognise your grief and loss in your sorry business. We hope you find comfort and care in these pages and receive all the love and support you deserve during this difficult time.
This resource was made by Aboriginal people, for Aboriginal people with the support of the Stillbirth Centre of Research Excellence, Mater Research and Red Nose.
Please note that we use the term ‘bub born sleeping’ or ‘passed away’ to describe stillbirth because that is what community asked for.
As Aboriginal people, we sadly have higher rates of bubs born sleeping than our non- Indigenous friends. The Stillbirth Centre of Research Excellence and its partners identified access to services or resources that are culturally supportive, responsive and that are directly related to bereavement care for Aboriginal families who have experienced a bub born sleeping.
We know as Aboriginal people, we do best when we are together. Whether that is in celebration and joy, or hard times and grief. We know supporting and being there for each other, with our Aboriginal ways of knowing, being and doing is what gets us through our grief and pain, and what supports us healing.
This resource is our way to support you through the Sorry Business of losing your little bub.
We hope this guide not only gives you information so that you can feel strong in the decisions you are making for yourself and Bub, but that it also feels like a big cuddle from an Aunt you know, who always gives the best ones.
This guide reflects the 2024 Care Around Stillbirth and Neonatal Death Clinical Practice Guideline, developed by the Centre of Research Excellence in Stillbirth (Stillbirth CRE) and the Perinatal Society of Australia and New Zealand (PSANZ). The clinical guideline sets out best-practice care to help healthcare professionals support parents when a baby dies or is expected to die.
This parent version shares the same information adapted for families. It reflects the experiences of parents and healthcare professionals, along with latest research. It has been designed to be sensitive to parents and families at a time of loss. While the focus is on stillbirth and newborn death, some information may also be helpful for parents who have had other types of pregnancy loss.
Earlier versions of this guide were funded by Stillbirth Foundation Australia, in partnership with the Stillbirth CRE.
This guide was dreamed up on Wergaia Country in a little old railway house by Skye Stewart— a Wergaia and Wamba Wamba midwife, researcher, mumma and artist (some of Skye’s artwork is featured in this map).
We know that as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, we are more likely to lose our bubs in pregnancy or labour than our non-Indigenous friends. If we are mob that live rural or remote, there is an even higher risk. However, there were no resources or guides available to support us in our sorry business journey after losing Bub. We needed something that was made by us, for us because our ways of knowing, being and doing are so important.
Being connected to family, Country and Ancestors is a big way we heal in our health, wellness and grief. Culture is our protective factor and our way to healing. If we choose to, having access to ceremony, ritual, dance, song and story is our right and it needs to be understood and respected by our health care teams when they are caring for us in sorry business times. We wanted that reflected in this guide.
Over 30 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people across Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Countries and the allies who work with us, contributed time, stories, feedback, ideas, hopes and love to this map—shaping it to what it is now. We carried our peoples voices to create something that was needed and wanted by community.
The Stillbirth Centre of Research Excellence was the driving force in creating this opportunity to become a reality and Red Nose Australia supported us every step along the way. We thank the many families, heath care professionals, researchers and community who collectively made this happen.
To view our other resources for care around pregnancy and baby loss, please visit: carearoundloss.stillbirthcre.org.au
To contact the team, please email: stillbirthcre@mater.uq.edu.au
Publication date: July 2026
Online version: 1.0
© 2026 NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Stillbirth (Stillbirth CRE), Mater Research Institute-University of Queensland
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial–NoDerivatives 4.0 International Licence (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).
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The University of Queensland Faculty of Medicine
