Preventable Baby Loss

Lizzi Collinge Excerpts

Wednesday 4th September 2024 Westminster Hall

[Lizzi Collinge (Morecambe and Lunesdale) (Lab)]

I thank the hon. Member for Ashfield (Lee Anderson). As a woman who has lost two very much wanted pregnancies, baby and pregnancy loss is very close to my heart. I also represent an area that, in the past, has seen poor maternity care cause the death of babies. I want to speak about the importance of local support for parents and families, and to give those support organisations a voice here in Parliament. I also want to highlight the absolute necessity of rigorous investigations and true candour when babies die. My constituency hosts two excellent support groups for people affected by pregnancy and baby loss: Matilda’s Mission, set up by Chelsie and Matt after the death of their baby Matilda, and the Tigerlily Trust, set up by Val in memory of her daughter Lily.

Matilda’s Mission and the Tigerlily Trust work with local bereaved families. They provide a whole host of support, including remembrance boxes for bereaved parents to make and collect as many memories as possible in the short time they have with their babies, and to give them resources when they return home. There are sibling memory boxes for bereaved living siblings, sibling play sessions, and support groups, which in particular can combat the loneliness and isolation often felt with this sort of grief. They provide a place where people can come and heal together. There are dad drop-ins, one-to-one catch-ups, grandparent events, older sibling events, whole family events at holidays such as Christmas, and of course events around Mother’s and Father’s day. The two groups also work with hospitals and universities on maternity bereavement care and host Baby Loss Awareness Week events.

I asked Chelsie, Matt and Val what they wanted me to say today, and they told me that funding is an issue. For example, the bereavement suite at the Royal Lancaster infirmary, co-designed with bereaved parents, has been closed for some time due to safety concerns. While the trust continues to work on that, maternity bereavement does not seem high on the agenda when it comes to budgets. As Chelsie said in her beautifully blunt way, “Dead babies and their families matter too.” Funding for support groups is also extremely difficult, with some groups struggling to get support for funds to continue. Support for families is currently a postcode lottery, often involving lengthy referral times for NHS services or support from charities. When families are in the depths of grief, 12 weeks’ wait for a referral is tough going. Families need consistent and timely care.

Matt, Chelsie and Val also wanted me to mention bereaved dads and non-birthing parents. The lack of support again is apparent, and their role can often be seen as merely supportive to the mother or birthing parent, rather than as a grieving parent themselves. Something important to me—this was mentioned by the hon. Member for Ashfield—is tackling the idea that natural childbirth is somehow superior to medically assisted childbirth. At its worst, that belief—and it is no more than a belief—has killed babies.

Finally, I want to mention something that touches all aspects of health and social care, and that I am sure our new Government will take very seriously. When things go wrong, it is the duty of all organisations involved to be fully truthful, transparent and willing to learn. When adverse outcomes are potentially due to failures in care, too often families experience insufficient and prolonged investigations that add to the trauma. We owe it to the babies lost—baby Matilda, baby Lily, baby Theo, baby Olivia, the baby daughter lost to placental abruption and Hayley’s baby—not only to find out what happened to them, but to ensure that we prevent every single future death we possibly can through a rigorous commitment to investigations at pace, a culture of safety, and the best possible patient care.