Baby Loss

Alex Sobel Excerpts

Monday 13th October 2025 Commons Chamber

[Michelle Welsh]

I thank my hon. Friend; that was an important thing to say.

I was so pleased when the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care announced a rapid review of maternity services, which I believe he did to ensure that we get on with fixing the problems that we know are there—for example, with continuity of care—as soon as possible. It is vital that we take families with us and ensure that they are listened to and treated with respect. Let us not waste this real opportunity to change the systems that have been harming families for far too long.

The final key aspect that I would like to address is the need for true accountability. Too often, negligence leads to loss; the failures are there for everyone to see. I ask those who have recently called for a reduction in accountability this: how can accountability be reduced to improve maternity services when it is not even there? I am not talking about hounding midwives and obstetricians, but if someone makes a mistake again and again, as we saw in Nottinghamshire, families have to fight for the truth. Mothers leave hospital having been made to think that they were at fault. There has to be accountability. We need accountability and support to allow midwives to become great. Families should be clear about the process, which should work with them, so that they get answers and the truth without having to fight for them.

[Alex Sobel (Leeds Central and Headingley) (Lab/Co-op)]

My hon. Friend is making an excellent speech and is a great advocate on this subject. I am sure she knows about the MBRRACE-UK—Mothers and Babies: Reducing Risk through Audits and Confidential Enquiries across the UK—data; it shows mortality rates across the country. Like Nottinghamshire, Leeds has high mortality rates—in fact, they are the highest in the UK and 70% higher than the average. Those preventable baby losses are not an accident or a statistical mistake. Does she agree that the leadership of hospital trusts with such high rates need to take accountability and fix them? This is not an issue for individual maternity units; this should be taken on by the chief executive and those at the highest level in teaching hospitals.

[Michelle Welsh]

I absolutely agree; if we had that approach in Nottinghamshire, the story would have been very different.

This starts with us building a culture that allows people to say, “This went wrong, and this is why. I made a mistake, and I am sorry. It’s time to fix it.” We cannot accept any more maternity scandals in this country. Of course, there will be times when nothing more can be done, through nobody’s fault, but in instances where mistakes were made, clinicians need to come forward. How do we learn from mistakes if they are never identified?

Regulators such as the Care Quality Commission, the Nursing and Midwifery Council and the General Medical Council need to step up. The evidence is there for all to see in Nottinghamshire: the NMC failed, the GMC failed and the CQC failed. All those organisations were informed over and over again about what was happening in Nottingham, and nothing was done—not one thing. To this day, no one has been held accountable.

I welcome the Government’s decision to publish a consultation on secondary legislation in order to modernise regulatory frameworks. I would be grateful to hear more about that. I ask the Government to involve bereaved and harmed families in the process, because regulation must work for families, and to work with organisations such as the Royal College of Midwives to ensure that clinicians are involved. In any reform and change, there must be balance.

It is time for this Labour Government to take action. What successive Governments have allowed to unfold in maternity care tells a devastating story about how little the lives and experience of women are valued. Those of us who were made to feel completely expendable at the most vulnerable moment in our life will know that to be only too true. In choosing how to respond, this Government have a powerful opportunity to send a decisive message about how they view and value women.

It is possible to make change. Every day, I meet fantastic organisations run by people who have used their experience to fuel their work to change lives. They include Jo Cruse from Delivering Better, Sharon Luca from the Luca Foundation, Heidi Eldridge from the MAMA Academy, Laura Corcoran from Dignity Care Network, and Clo and Tinuke from Five X More. I could name so many more.

It is truly astonishing how many people across the country, from all corners of our society, from mothers to midwives, are working themselves to the bone to improve our maternity and bereavement services. They are all pushing for change for women and the babies of the future. This is no longer just a campaign; it is a movement, and if the Government and the NHS do not act now, they risk being left behind. We face many crises in our maternity services, and the only way through them is together. Families, midwifes, mothers, fathers, nurses, obstetricians, charities, decision makers and Members of Parliament must come together in this movement to fundamentally reshape our services, so that safe birth, continuity of care and accountability are at their centre.

All of us here are bound by a shared, heartbreaking truth: no parent should have to say goodbye before hello. Affected families deserve more than condolences. It is up to us in this Chamber to demand an end to the preventable failures, systemic neglect and outdated protocols that steal futures. Grief must become the engine of change. It is not enough to patch a broken system; we must rebuild it, stronger and safer than ever before, for every baby whose life was too short, for every family left shattered, and for every future family depending on us right now. Our task is clear. The time for analysis is over. The time for delay is over. I will not rest until our maternity services are fixed, permanently and profoundly.

We are fighting for a future in which safety is guaranteed, every mother is heard and every birth is met with the excellence and dedication it deserves. Let the memory of the children we hold in our hearts be the light that guides our resolve: baby Harriett, baby Teddy, baby Junior, Amaya, baby Winter, Maya, Dexter, Smokey, baby Ladybird and baby Coupa, the wonderful, kind and funny Ryan, and every baby and mother impacted and gone too soon. We must pledge to them and to ourselves that we will fix maternity services. We will build a legacy of safety so powerful that their short lives will forever protect the long lives of others, and we will do it for good.