Baby Loss Awareness Week

Lilian Greenwood Excerpts

Tuesday 10th October 2017 Commons Chamber

[Lilian Greenwood (Nottingham South) (Lab)]

I pay tribute to the hon. Members and their constituents who have shared their deeply personal stories. It must be very difficult to talk about the loss of a child. We are indebted to all those who have had the courage to talk about their experiences, both this evening and previously. I remember watching the debate last October and being struck by the speech made by my hon. Friend the Member for Lewisham, Deptford (Vicky Foxcroft), who is in the Chamber tonight. She said then that it was the most difficult speech she had ever had to write or deliver, but it mattered enormously that she did so. Her speech, as well as those of other Members, many of whom are here tonight, demonstrated that Parliament was willing to talk about this most painful issue.

It was a few weeks after that debate that I met my constituents Jack and Sarah Hawkins, whose daughter Harriet was born dead at Nottingham City Hospital on 17 April 2016. Jack and Sarah were convinced that Harriet’s death was the result of a mismanaged labour, but their concerns were not listened to by hospital staff; they were told that a post-mortem had found that Harriet’s death was caused by an infection and

“to try to move on”.

Jack and Sarah are both health professionals, so they knew that there was no evidence of an infection. They were sure that their healthy, full-term baby had died due to mistakes in Sarah’s care, and they were not prepared to be dismissed. The debate in this House helped to give them the confidence to get in touch and seek my advice and support, but it is thanks to their courage and determination that Harriet’s death is finally the subject of a proper external investigation. But the loss of their much-wanted daughter, and the circumstances surrounding it, have had an absolutely devastating effect on every aspect of their lives. Last week, they spoke to the media about Harriet’s death and the failures of care during Sarah’s labour, and many Members may have seen, heard or read their story. I will not attempt to do justice to it now, but others will be able to look it up online if they want. Jack and Sarah are calling for a change in the law to enable coroners to investigate stillbirths and hold inquests into the deaths of babies after 37 weeks’ gestation. That is the particular issue that I want to discuss today.

Under the Coroners and Justice Act 2009, a coroner has a duty to investigate certain deaths, but current legislation means that a stillborn child is not classed as a deceased person, so the coroner cannot investigate even when a healthy full-term baby has died during labour and the parents wish the coroner to do so. I welcome the Minister’s confirmation that the standardised perinatal mortality review tool is being rolled out across the country, but will he also support calls to broaden coroners’ jurisdiction so that they are able, at the request of parents, to investigate a stillbirth? Hospitals’ internal review processes should involve parents and should answer their questions about why their baby has died, but when those questions are not answered, the coroner can play a vital role not just in providing answers—important though that is—but in identifying preventable deaths, and ensuring that lessons are learned and mistakes are not repeated. Such a change to coronial law would bring England and Wales in line with Northern Ireland, where a landmark legal ruling in 2013 held that a coroner

“can carry out an inquest into the death of a stillborn child that had been capable of being born alive.”

It is clear from several contributions this evening that there is cross-party support for such a change. I particularly welcomed the contribution of the right hon. Member for Broxtowe (Anna Soubry). She is not in the Chamber now, but she assured me that the change has her support, for which I am thankful. I hope that the Minister will deal specifically and positively with this suggestion when he responds to the debate.

There is nothing that I can do to take away the pain of Harriet’s death for Jack and Sarah, as much as I wish I could, but I think that they would gain some comfort if their experience helped to prevent other parents from suffering in the same way.