• One in five pregnancies ends in miscarriage
• Over 100,000 women lose their babies each year and the cause is often unknown.

This high rate has remained the same since the 1930s.

• 10 babies are stillborn every day

Although this rate is falling there is still no clear medical reason given for over half of all stillbirths

• 100 babies are born too small or too soon each day

One in ten of these babies will die or develop serious permanent disabilities

It seems incredible that, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, these figures should still be so high. It is a tragedy that, despite all the best efforts of our medical services, so many pregnancies should end in heartbreak. Despite the magnitude of the problem, doctors still don't know why these tragedies happen.

Tommy's not only provides funding for vital research but also supplies information about pregnancy health issues to health professionals and parents to be. Tommy's aims to ensure that information on health in pregnancy and reducing the risks of problems is available to all parents-to-be in the UK, thereby reducing the number of babies' lives lost.

Our history

Tommy's, the baby charity, was launched in 1992 by two obstetricians and a mother who had a single goal: to make pregnancy and childbirth safer for both the expectant mother and her baby. By funding research into miscarriage, premature birth and stillbirth, answers could be found to prevent these tragedies occurring.

In 1994 Tommy's gained full membership to the Association of Medical Research Charities and also raised £1.4 million to fund the UK's first Professor of Fetal Health, Lucilla Poston, based in the Maternal and Fetal Research Unit at St Thomas' Hospital in London.

In 2001, a second research centre based at St Mary's Hospital in Manchester was established. Led by Professor Philip Baker, the team is situated close to the obstetrics and baby unit in the hospital, and it hopes to create a 'Centre of Excellence'.

Tommy's not only provides funding for vital research but also supplies information about pregnancy health issues to health professionals and parents-to-be. Tommy's aims to ensure that information on health in pregnancy and reducing the risk of problems is available to all parents-to-be in the UK, thereby reducing the number of babies' lives lost.