Grieving parents who have lost their baby can now get extra support online, thanks to the launch of a new website.

The Forget-Me-Not charity, which has a special bereavement suite in Basildon Hospital's maternity ward for the comfort of mothers who have given birth to stillborn babies, has set up the site along with a parents' forum.

Anyone who has been touched by the premature death of an infant is welcome to use the site to get support, advice and even friendship from others who have had similar experiences.

Maria Smith, who set up the website and forum, is driven by the stillbirth of her own daughter Laura, 19 years ago.

She said: "It is a great help to have somewhere to go where you can find others that have experienced a similar devastating loss, a place to share your feelings with other bereaved parents or just to chat generally and know that there are other people in a similar position, feeling like you do.

"For me personally, the forum makes me feel less alone."

Explaining her experience and the importance of the bereavement suite on the website, Maria writes: "From hearing those heart-stopping words - "I'm sorry, your baby is dead" - to going through labour and childbirth with no beautiful, healthy baby to cuddle afterwards was the most unbearable pain that to this day I could never explain to anyone.

"But worse, if that's possible, was to come - I was taken to a side room on the main labour ward, pushed in a wheelchair through the open ward where delighted mums and dads were cuddling their lovely newborn babies, hearing the sound that I had desperately wanted to hear from my own baby - the sound of a newborn baby crying."

To visit the forum or make a donation you canlog on to the website below or call Maria on 0845 6520 448