A copy of Nancy Kohner's book Miscarriage, Stillbirth and Neonatal Death: Guidelines for Professionals (1991) published by the Stillbirth and Neonatal Death Society (Sands), was sent to every midwifery unit in the country. It transformed the way the death of a baby was understood and managed by health professionals and has given help and comfort to many bereaved parents.
Nancy, who has died aged 55 of breast cancer, became interested in healthcare in the late 1970s, when she was made publications officer for the Health Education Council. In 1982, she left the HEC and in 1984 published The Pregnancy Book, followed in 1989 by Birth to Five for the Health Education Authority. Both books were distributed free to all first-time mothers. In 1988 she wrote Having a Baby, which accompanied the BBC TV series of the same name.
She also worked for the National Extension College (NEC), the Department of Health, the Carers National Association, the BBC, the Midwives Information and Resource Service, the King's Fund, the Miscarriage Association and many others. In 1985 she co-authored and researched When a Baby Dies. Nancy had interviewed parents and enabled them to help other bereaved parents. From the mid-1980s, she worked with Sands and in 1995, Nancy revised the original Sands guidelines under the title Pregnancy, Loss and the Death of a Baby. Recognising the need for training, she co-authored the accompanying training pack for professionals published by the NEC.
Nancy 's Sands publication, A Dignified Ending (1992) was the first document to address the difficult issue of the disposal of the bodies of babies born dead before the legal age of viability. She was a valued member of the perinatal pathology committee of the Confidential Inquiry into Stillbirths and Deaths in Infancy. As a lay member of the applied and qualitative research ethics committee of the John Radcliffe NHS Trust, Nancy contributed clarity and insight to all deliberations. Her talent for sensitive communication was invaluable in her work as a member of the retained organs team of the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust.
From Bradford Girls' grammar school, Nancy read English literature at Newnham College, Cambridge in 1969. She could be a challenging correspondent and conversationalist, taking an unselfconscious pleasure in the precision of her language. Language was a perpetual delight to her, at the kitchen table, the desk, in hurried emails or text messages.
Nancy is survived by her three children, Daniel, Bridget and Grace.
· Nancy Helen Kohner, writer and policy adviser, born December 28 1950; died March 1 2006
