dubhcait
commented
5 years ago Direct Competitors and how Nova is different
Foundation
Tommys, who fund all aspects of baby research but do not provide trauma or bereavement support, SANDS, who provide practical and emotional bereavement support but not professional or trauma support, and PETALS who provide six counselling sessions to families going through babyloss in the home counties. Little Miracles provide birth trauma and bereavement support, this is the only other organisation that has specific trauma support. They are limited to six sessions and to the one region in Kent. Child Bereavement offer pan childloss support, more focussed on children than babyloss (good support but not specific).
Nova Foundation differs in that it focuses on immediate and long term therapeutic support for up to 14 months (through and beyond the first year) to parents going through babyloss, or who have experienced a traumatic birth, as well as supporting those parents when they are pregnant after a loss. By working with GP’s and hospitals we would hope to ensure there is coverage across every local authority but will likely pilot in East London (Newham, Tower Hamlets and Hackney) to demonstrate the need for the Foundation, with Antenatal Classes being tested across London and the South East. I truly want the classes to run across the UK.
Some other organisations can be deeply triggering or outdated in their approach. Nova Foundation will offer hope and comfort, as well as practical support that enables parents to safely grieve, mourn and celebrate the life of their child while trying to rehabilitate back to life.
Antenatal
The main competitors for antenatal classes are NCT, who have huge brand recognition, Happy Parent Happy Baby which is run by healthcare professionals and Bumps and Baby Club is big in London and set up as an alternative to NCT. They also have classes in ‘hip’ locations. The Rainbow Midwife does run PAL antenatal classes, has an excellent brand and is the only other competitor for PAL classes. They are Reading based only. Do not think they cover trauma support.
Many of the classes focus on birth and the first three months. Having spoken to parents who have attended antenatal classes, many say that the onus is on birth and the first three months, and based on when the baby is due. Parenthood can be isolating. By connecting parents who have experienced nuanced traumas by helping them deal with the trauma, manage anxiety and form connections helps to build further resilient parents. Nova antenatal also differs in that profits will go into supporting parents when they need it most. Any other profit will go into funding research that saves babies lives.
Why Nova?
Nova means new star. A supernova is when two stars come together to create, for a short while, a light brighter than their own. For babyloss parents this is significant. Many parents also describe their baby as their brightest star in the sky. Stars are an integral part of Nova. Foundation comes from the hope that surplus profits will fund pregnancy loss and baby loss research.
Vision and Mission
Nova Foundation’s vision is a world without babyloss. Nova’s mission is to ensure that families at all stages of pregnancy and babyloss of a child up to 12 months old receive immediate, adaptive, long term and practical therapeutic trauma and bereavement support for 14 months, and in subsequent pregnancies. This will ensure families are fully supported to survive past the first year of grief whilst feeling comforted and less anxious about the future.
Strapline – comfort and support for babyloss parents
Why was it started?
Babyloss parents receive no trauma and anxiety support, and no ongoing bereavement support. The founder has direct experience of this and does not want anyone else to have this experience.
Values
Nova embeds the Japanese philosophy Kintsugi. Kintsugi means golden seams. When ceramics break, instead of discarding the object, or hiding the break, kintsugi repairs the break with golden glue, which enhances the beauty of the object while exaggerating the break, making it integral to the object and not something to hide. For parents whose baby has died, that baby is their piece of gold and is certainly not something that should ever be hidden.
Nova wants babyloss parents to feel understood, supported, have their experience validated, connected, accepted, reassured and loving reassurance, comforted and hopeful. Nova Foundation wants to embody being a parent to support babyloss parents through their grief.
Summed up in three words acceptance, comfort, hopeful
Brand Personality
Comforting, warm, hopeful, reassuring, resilient, maternal, positive and knowledgeable. If the brand was a person it would be your favourite aunt, where you can still feel her hug long after you have left her.
In three words warm, reassuring, maternal
Customers
We would like our customers to describe us as comforting, validating, practical and understanding.
What makes Nova different?
Nova Foundation is unique for a variety of reasons.
We will run Antenatal classes that focus on anxiety re-education for parents who have experienced pregnancy loss (likely broken down by trimester of loss), as well as classes for families who have experienced birth trauma, had children in NICU etc. I also wish to run classes for parents who are having surrogate children and those pregnant by sperm donors, parents with tokophobia (fear of birth). The classes will be a space for parents who are left out of mainstream antenatal classes. There may also be refresher classes for grandparents.
Where these classes will also differ is through the curriculum – anxiety reduction will be embedded in every ‘module’ and classes will cover the first year of birth, not just the first three months, as well as covering baby blues and Post Natal Depression. Most providers gloss over these elements, but it is something parents who have attended antenatal classes have told me they wanted to know more about.
There is one provider of Pregnancy after Loss (PAL) antenatal classes in Reading. NA will run antenatal classes similar to the above but with additional trauma and anxiety reduction techniques.
These classes (as well as eventual tendering for contracts) will fund Nova Foundation therapists who will provide 14 months therapeutic support to parents. Very few babyloss organisations provide therapeutic support. PETALS offer six sessions and follow up when pregnant, but Nova will provide long term trauma AND bereavement support, helping parents transition going back to work, through anniversaries, mothers day, fathers day etc as well as the first year meltdown. The therapist may also run support groups focussed on trauma but this would be secondary.
Nova will also provide practical resources for parents, to empower them. Services such as online exercise classes, as mother and baby classes are not suitable, downloadable bereavement workbooks and in time a trauma CBT online course. Nova will be a one stop shop for comfort and give parents the tools they need to feel more in control of a situation that has taken their lives out of control.
No other organisation provides this level of extensive therapeutic and holistic support to parents experiencing loss.