Echo and Wave CIC

15/10/2026

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06/10/2026

Affirmations 🤍
If you’re local to Bolton, UK and you need an understanding shoulder this month, please reach out to us and we’ll do what we can to support you through 🤍 you’re not alone.

05/10/2026

Baby Loss Awareness Week is nearly here, and it’s worth taking stock of your own capacity before it arrives in full.

A few grounding and self-care practices worth having ready:
🤍A simple breathing technique for the moments that catch you off guard (in for 4, hold for 4, out for 6).
🤍One “just for you” ritual this week - a bath, a walk, ten minutes with a book, whatever counts as rest for you specifically.
🤍A note in your phone of two or three people you can message if a day gets hard, so you’re not searching for who to call in the moment.
🤍Permission to say no to plans this month if your capacity is lower than usual.

Self-care this month isn’t indulgent. It’s what makes the month survivable.

25/09/2026

Talking Football CIC has put a great post together with some local support groups available. Please don’t suffer in silence x

24/09/2026

Welcome to the start of our little lending library.

Losing a baby has hidden expenses. Time off work not covered by sick pay, appointments, private therapy. Local libraries don’t often stock baby loss self help books so we decided to use some of our funding to start a little library of our own. With some kind donations from personal collections and the help of Diane at ebb & flo bookshop we have started to build a small collection that will be available at each meeting (other collections can be arranged if needed).

To start with we had to go straight for the best. We have books by The Worst Girl Gang Ever Foundation and Zoe Clark-Coates MBE | Grief Therapist
I read all three of these after Ciara died. I cannot recommend them enough.

If you would like to borrow any of these please reach out. Our next Rainbow Baby group is Tuesday 29th Sept at Thyme for Tea on Church St in Westhoughton at 7pm, please feel free to come along and browse the collection, stay for a chat if you feel up to it 🤍

22/09/2026

Walk and Talk tonight at 7pm, meet at St Mary’s School gates on Victoria Road for a gentle lap of Horwich x

Just a little notice for the groups and walks from now until the end of the year.

Whilst our walks have been taking place in Horwich please reach out if you would like a more local one in your area, as we may be able to accommodate a change of scenery!

And remember, if you need someone to talk to but you’re not ready for a group session yet, please reach out. We have availability for one-to-ones if that would suit you better.

22/09/2026

Taken from :
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6ab1479d65fe7986cbeb540d/leave-for-bereavement-including-pregnancy-loss-government-response.pdf

‘Being at work but not being able to work at full capacity as the result of a bereavement has significant impacts on employer revenue and profit’

I’m so sorry that the loss of our babies has negatively impacted your profit.

The Government is relying on employer’s discretion to choose to provide pay or longer leave. Surely losing an experienced, trained, long serving member of staff, having to pay to advertise, interview and train a new member of staff to replace them if they leave, is more costly than giving them two weeks pay?

The longer I sit with this the angrier I get. Campaigners have worked their arses off to get this and it feels like a token gesture with the onus put on employers to do better. But legally, they don’t have to.

Ultimately it’s ’you can grieve if you can afford to, but only for two weeks, unless your employer is half decent and does better’.

22/09/2026

Apologies, I’m not comfortable in front of the camera but it was easier to speak than put this in words. Also, I misspoke. I took 4.5 months off work. It wasn’t enough. 2 weeks will not be enough for a lot of women out there. .burnham thank you for making a great start, I just really hope companies go beyond the bare minimum.

22/09/2026

I love the number of people who have sent me this already this morning.

This is a good start, but, please tell me the difference mentally, physically, emotionally, between 24 weeks, and 23 weeks 6 days 23 hours? Because the difference financially is huge considering one more hour entitles you to your full maternity leave.

We could have lost Ciara at any time during the 24 weeks and 4 days she was with us. If she had gone just 5 days earlier, I would have had to go back to work after just 5 days leave. Now it would be 2 weeks. It’s not enough. Your whole life has changed. Everything you planned and wished for and dreamed of is gone. Why does an hour make such a huge difference? Why does a week make such a huge difference?

This is a really good start, but I hope companies treat this as a baseline, the legal MINIMUM that it is, and I hope they really consider what their staff really need in terms of support.