A team of midwives based at Queen’s Hospital in Romford have been shortlisted for a national award.

The midwifery bereavement team at the Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust (BHRUT) have made it to the last three in the Royal College of Midwives 2013 awards.

The team – who care for women giving birth at both Queen’s, in Rom Valley Way, and King George hospitals - are in the finals of the Rewarding Excellence in Bereavement Care category.

The team of three care for and support families who have experienced a late miscarriage, still birth or neonatal death.

As well as supporting the women while they are still on the labour ward, they also visit families at home after their loss.

The team also offers unique clinics for mums-to-be who have lost a baby previously.

They run four clinics a week offering specialist care to pregnant women who have had to deal with a still-birth or neo-natal death, giving them intensive support and offering them many more scans than usual.

BHRUT deals with almost 10,000 births a year, and with the latest national figures showing that rates of stillbirth have increased to 5.2 in every 1,000 births, it is a busy service.

Bereavement midwife Diane Bellanca – who works alongside colleagues Claire Waters and Liz Dorey - has been with BHRUT for almost three years.

She said: “This job can take a lot out of you as it is obviously emotionally draining, but the positive side is supporting people through a successful second pregnancy.

“That is so rewarding.”

The team now has to give a special presentation to the awards judges before they find out whether they have scooped the top prize at a ceremony in January.