Shortest Lives: FamousGrey provides a new and powerful memory for parents of stillborn babies

FamousGrey launches ‘Shortest Lives’ together with non-profit organisation Berrefonds and the University Hospital of Ghent. A new way to offer comfort to parents of stillborn babies suffering a loss. Shortest Lives is an audiovisual reproduction of a heartbeat that is currently only stored visually for medical reasons.

The first heartbeat

Hearing a baby’s heartbeat for the first time is a magical moment. But for parents who tragically lose their unborn baby, the sound of the heartbeat can remain a vague memory. For many parents, this makes the profound loss even more difficult.

Reproducing the heartbeat as a powerful memory

Now, in collaboration with a sound engineer based on echocardiograms, the heartbeat is made audible again. For the first time, parents will be able to listen to the heartbeat of their still born baby again. The design, based on an ultrasound, represents life. It visualises the stillborn's heartbeat in a unique way using layers of data stored throughout the pregnancy such as the duration, the sex of the baby and the date of birth. Using this, we are able to give parents a powerful and living memory of their baby. 

“Shortest Lives provides remembrance in a different way. We often talk about visible and tangible things, but a heartbeat, it’s a sound, you can hear the activity. It’s something which expresses more life than a picture ever could.”

-Dr. E. Roets - Head of the Obstetrics Department at the University Hospital of Ghent

Parents can submit an application online on www.shortestlives.com. You can also learn more about the project through the ‘Koesterkoffer’ of Berrefonds. A Koesterkoffer is a suitcase containing all sorts of carefully chosen items that support parents in saying goodbye in a beautiful way. This is an established feature in all Flemish hospitals.

A project that keeps evolving

Any parents that have been to the University Hospital of Ghent for an ultrasound can submit an application for Shortest Lives. We are now looking to involve other hospitals in order to expand this project and help as many parents as we can.

Client: Berrefonds vzw (together with Universitair Ziekenhuis Gent)
​Contact Berrefonds: Christine Vandenhole, Liesbeth Talboom

Contact UZ Gent: Brecht Vande Kerckhove, Yves Vander Haeghen, dr. Ellen Roets, Anne Huygevelt, Dieneke van Gerrewey, Karlien Wouters

Agency: FamousGrey ​
​Creative Director: Peter Ampe, Laurie Lacourt ​
​Creative team: An-Sofie Keulen, Steve Maes ​
​Account Director: Jef Leysen, ​ ​
​Account Executive: Silke Galle ​ 

Strategic planner: Yarne de Schrijver
​Creative planner: Kirsten Vanderbeke

Motion design: Sacha Lempereur

Design: ​ Uncle Grey 

Designers: Christian Rahn,

COO: Charlotte Porsager

Strategic Director: Lars Samuelsen
​

Developer: Arno Vanbiesen

Experience Director: Maarten Breda

RTV Producer: Myriam Maes ​ ​
​DOP: Gilles Desplanque ​
​Offline editor: Sven Vanhee

Sound: Mathieu Savenay

Post-production: FamousGrey Productions ​
​Editor: Sven Vanhee, Gilles Desplanque

PR agency: Famous Relations
​PR contact: Astrid Jacobs, Zoë Cnaepkens, Eva van Riet