Baby Loss Awareness Week

Peter Prinsley Excerpts

Monday 12th October 2026 Commons Chamber

[Andy MacNae]

I think this connects to the issue of personalised care. When it comes to bereavement support, it is the care and support that works for that individual. I will talk later about personalised care plans and personalised support plans during bereavement, but it is about reflecting on what the individual needs, not what the system says someone needs.

[Dr Peter Prinsley (Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket) (Lab)]

My hon. Friend is making a very powerful speech. Does he agree that charitable organisations such as Sands—we have Suffolk Sands in my constituency and today the red pillar boxes throughout Bury St Edmunds are covered in crocheted hats that have come from Sands—and the peer group support they are able to make available is absolutely crucial to supporting families who have lost babies? There can be few families in the land who are not affected.

[Andy MacNae]

I join my hon. Friend in paying tribute to Sands—indeed, we are joined today by staff from Sands in the Gallery. There are so many charities, such as Tommy’s and others, that are vital. It is a fact that so many parents rely on voluntary services and voluntary support to get through what is one of the most difficult times in their lives. Those charities are indispensable, but at the same time they are often plugging gaps that exist in the system that maybe should be providing that support.

The third point I want to focus on is on the question about personalised family-centred care. Every pregnancy and every family is different. Good care depends on seeing the person in front of you, listening carefully, and understanding their history, circumstances, concerns and individual risks. Too many families have described being dismissed or treated as a category rather than as a person. A safe service cannot be one in which parents are not heard. Nor can it be called safe if assumptions about ethnicity or background influence the care someone receives.

--- Later in debate ---

[Dr Prinsley]

I am very impressed to see both a former Health Secretary and the present Health Secretary here late in the evening for this debate, which is a sign of the subject’s importance.

Does the right hon. Gentleman feel that fundamental to the third problem he describes is the breakdown in relationships between the profession of midwifery and the profession of obstetrics, and that there is, in some instances, what appears to be a competition between these two crucial professions, and that one answer may be to find some way of getting the two professions closer together?

[Sir Jeremy Hunt]

I defer to the hon. Gentleman’s clinical experience, but I absolutely agree with him. He has hit the nail on the head.

Before I come on to my solutions, I want to say why I think this is still a problem. Very senior voices are still promoting “normal birth” ideology, including a former president of the Royal College of Midwives who told LBC in June:

“Doctors have taken over maternity, and they’re not doing it very well.”

It really is time to stop denying the problem and start solving it. Never again should the promotion of an ideology about a so-called preferable type of birth lead to a mother or baby being put at risk.

--- Later in debate ---

[Ian Roome (North Devon) (LD)]

I thank Members on both sides of the House for initiating the debate. It comes at a very important moment for many of my constituents. Owing to a serious staffing crisis, all births at North Devon district hospital have been suspended for more than eight weeks, which has forced more than 180 expectant mothers to travel for at least two hours to Exeter to give birth since 11 August. Many fear that the journey is not safe, and have experienced weeks of stress and anxiety, picturing unexpected complications, the trauma of a difficult birth or the loss of a little one. This is a fear that cuts through the whole community, down every street and across every class and background. I that know I am not the only Member who receives private emails from constituents with heartfelt or even heartbreaking stories, shared only in complete confidence.

There are estimated to be 120,000 miscarriages in the UK each year, although the NHS does not know the true figure and some estimates are far higher. Losing a child is something that no one should ever have to suffer, and many families are left grieving for what might have been. Reading their accounts, one is struck by how much small acts of kindness matter. We read about how trusts go about investigating a tragedy, about whether overworked NHS staff took time to listen to parents, and about whether or not public bodies use their child's name.

In North Devon we are blessed with the hard work of a wonderful local charity called Families in Grief, which gave me a simple glimpse into how complex bereavement support can be. The loss of a child has an impact not only on parents but on siblings and extended family, and for a long time. People experience grief very differently, and a death can shatter whole families. Speaking as a father and, now, a grandfather, I can say that the national health service is a modern miracle for some families. According to the Office for National Statistics, the infant mortality rate has fallen by more than 90% since 1900, and by more than 35% in just the past 25 years, and yet in some ways we seem to have gone backwards. According to the pregnancy and baby loss charity Sands, the proportion of parents waiting six months or more for post-mortem results has trebled to more than one in five. That is especially painful when it stops parents planning for another child.

Bereavement support is still only offered to parents after they have experienced a third miscarriage. The Liberal Democrats have argued for bereavement care after every miscarriage, which has also been proposed by the national pregnancy charity Tommy’s. They advocate basic counselling and advice after the first miscarriage, then blood tests and more advanced scans after each successive miscarriage. Those are important for those experiencing bereavement, but also in respect of the underlying health risks that need to be identified for a future pregnancy.

In North Devon, our local hospital is desperately trying to fill the two consultant spaces for the rota so that births can resume locally, but hundreds of families in our community also deserve a full independent review into what has happened. We need accountability, so that it never happens again. No parent should have this major milestone in life ruined by inadequate access to services, poor-quality care or insensitive treatment.

In December, the Government’s neonatal and maternity taskforce is due to put together a new national action plan to strengthen maternity units in the hospitals across the country. The desperate case of North Devon district hospital, and the peril of young parents in my constituency, should be front and centre in the taskforce’s thinking. I have met many families who struggle even to get to Exeter because of a lack of transport in my rural constituency.

[Dr Prinsley]

I am aware of the problem in the hon. Member’s hospital, and I would just like to say something quite shocking. We are talking about baby loss tonight, but we must also consider those babies who have been damaged by obstetric catastrophes. I will share a simple fact: the cost of the NHS obstetric service is about £3 billion per year, but we spend £1.3 billion per year on negligence compensation, with a total liability of £37 billion. The average claim for a damaged baby is £11 million. Although we are talking about baby loss and the problems affecting the obstetric service, we must also consider those babies who have been damaged because of obstetric disasters.

[Ian Roome]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for bringing his experience as a clinician to the House, and I totally agree with him.

After writing to the Secretary of State four times since July and not receiving one reply, I would welcome an urgent meeting with her to discuss the issues around maternity and how the closure of North Devon district hospital is affecting my constituents in North Devon.