A hospital in Colchester has banned the use of the word ‘angel’ to describe stillborn or miscarried babies after it was deemed ‘too religious’.
The idea for calling these babies ‘angels’ begun with Michelle Taylor, 29 who founded the support group, Whisperer, in order to provide support and comfort to grieving parents. The group also donated bags and announcement cards addressed to ‘angel parents’ in order to ‘show the parents that they had not been forgotten’. Taylor told the Daily Mail ‘the word angel was not meant to have any religious sense whatsoever’.
However, the names sparked tension among hospital workers and other political and atheist groups. Senior midwife, Jenny Collins told the Daily Mail that ‘we suspect that it has the potential to offend some parents’ and justified the fact that hospital staff opened the packs donated to the hospital before they were given to the parents by saying ‘we did not know what they contained, it is essential the trust is happy with all of their contents.’ Further opposition came from health chiefs who thought that the religious connotation would offend non religious parents.
These views have created upset from the British public and senior religious leaders. Father Ted Townsend wrote to the group saying 'The word has got to be angels. There is no other word to describe them ... the NHS should be grateful to you, not making things awkward.’
The group has been told to withdraw use of the name ‘angel’ and instead just write ‘parent’ on the announcement cards.