About Conference

From 20-22nd September 2019 at Sudima Airport Hotel in Christchurch the Sands National Conference will be held, catering to approximately 120 delegates. Our aim is to provide an uplifting experience for all attendees so they can feel welcome, able to reignite friendships and start new ones with other families and professionals alike.

We want to encourage togetherness in learning and teaching from one another and above all else, be around people who can relate to our own experiences. Of course there will be tears. And there will be sadness and grief. And there will be connectedness and togetherness as we comfort those around us.

​We will strive to make this conference memorable and beneficial on many levels to all those delegates that we are honoured to host in 2019. We have large shoes to fill as all Sands conferences have been incredible to attend, with a growing population attending each year.
​.

Who We Are

Sands is a voluntary, non-profit organisation that supports parents, families and whanau following the loss of a baby or infant at any gestation, any age and any circumstance. We are an inclusive, non-judgmental group of bereaved parents paying it forward. 

We support parents and their families who have experienced the death of a baby or infant, we provide memory making materials to hospitals and in the community, we provide education to health and caring professionals, and we encourage research into the prevention of baby and infant loss.

Every two years since 1997, Sands has held a national conference. You can see the different themes and venues of our conferences since 1997 here. This year will be our 12th biennial conference hosted by Sands Canterbury.  We are excited to be welcoming bereaved parents and families, health and caring professionals, researchers, social service providers, other grief and loss support agencies, and anyone interested in pregnancy, baby and infant loss to our 2019 conference.

Nau mai, haere mai.

​

Our Theme
About our theme for 2019....  Rebuilding your Life  


Rebuilding your Life is about finding the new you, learning about the journey through grief and discovering the resilience to go on.

Being a city devastated by a major earthquake and having to rebuild we found the theme quite fitting for this area. As the city rebuilds, so do we rebuild our lives after our own 'earthquake'.  How we do this, where we find support, and the journey of a city and ourselves were quite symbolic, especially in relation to grief. So we felt it quite fitting to follow this theme throughout our 2019 Conference.


​