Pregnancy remains

You may contact a funeral service yourself to arrange a service, burial or cremation, we can help you with this.

We will give the remains to a funeral director or an authorised individual appointed by you. Before the procedure the funeral director must provide a suitable container for the remains and after the procedure the funeral director must collect the remains. You will need to cover the costs of this service although some funeral directors offer it for free or a nominal charge.

If you would like some specialist help with the service, for instance from a Humanist Adviser or a community faith leader, a funeral director should be able to provide you with a relevant contact. You can also contact a cemetery or crematorium directly.

Available services:

Special Care Foetal Cremations 

You may bury the remains in your own garden or in another place which has a special meaning for you. Woodland or natural burial sites are available too (the Natural Death Centre can advise).

If you wish to bury the remains on private land, you need to know that:

• you must have permission for the burial from the owner of the land
• the burial or buried remains should not interfere with any rights that other people have over the land. For example, mortgage company with regard to resale of the property, or local council if the property is in a conservation area. It may be advisable to contact the relevant authority or company for advice.
• no danger must be caused to others, for example through pollution of water or by contamination of neighbouring land by the natural decomposition of the remains
• the remains should be buried at an appropriate depth (your local Environmental Health Department or the Environment Agency can advise)

If you intend to bury the remains in your garden, you should consider how you will feel if you move house, or if the land is used for a new purpose.

If you choose a communal cremation, no ashes are available afterwards. Because of the nature of the cremation process and the fragility of the pregnancy remains, there may be no ashes left after individual cremation either. If you feel that it is important to scatter ashes, you should discuss this with your funeral director or crematorium well before the cremation.

If you do have ashes, you can scatter or bury them:

• at the crematorium, local churchyard or cemetery of your choice
• at a place which has special meaning for you
• or, you could keep them at home

You may scatter the ashes on water but not:

• within 1km upstream of any drinking water supply
• from a bridge over a river used by boaters or canoeists
• near a marina or close to people fishing or bathing
• during windy weather or close to buildings, where the ashes may be blown about