Helen highlights tragic baby loss stories and calls for safe maternity staffing

Helen Morgan shared her own experience of childbirth and described the tragedies faced by parents in Shropshire as she urged the Government to make staffing levels safer during an emotional debate in Parliament.

The North Shropshire MP contrasted how safe she felt during an emergency caesarean with the trauma many mothers have experienced while giving birth across the country.

Helen was speaking during a cross-party debate on Baby Loss and Safe Staffing in Maternity Care and has separately requested an update on the implementation of the Ockenden Review recommendations from the Health Secretary.

The Lib Dem MP explained: “Although the birth of my baby didn't exactly go to plan, I felt brilliantly cared for at all times. When I moved to Shropshire four years later, I realised that that, tragically, is not always the case.

“Friends whose experiences to some extent sounded quite similar to mine told of near misses, blue babies being resuscitated, long stays in special care baby units.

“A very close friend of mine told me she didn't realise that flashbacks to the trauma of her birth weren't normal until many years later.

“Of course, we now know thanks to the bravery of many families and the detailed review of Donna Ockenden and her team, that there were serious and systemic failings at Shrewsbury and Telford over a long period of time.

“Those tragic stories include constituents and personal friends. I know of many other women who didn't come forward, either because their baby didn't suffer any long-term consequences, or they didn't want to revisit painful tragedies. Sometimes in Shropshire it seems that everyone of my age knows a family who lost a baby.”

Helen, a vice-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Baby Loss, was speaking after a new report showed that overwhelmed healthcare staff are struggling to provide safe maternity care and adequate bereavement care for parents who experience pregnancy loss or the death of a baby.

Nearly 700 midwives have been estimated to leave the profession in the last year and eight out of ten report that they don't have enough staff on their shift to provide a safe service.

Helen urged the Government to act to make sure that the experiences of bereaved families “are not in vain” and to act on unsafe staffing by committing to the recommended £200-350 million per year investment in maternity services. She also highlighted the need for more bereavement midwives.

Helen added: “Maternity services have been treated as a Cinderella service for years and we've been left with shocking scandal after shocking scandal. Thousands of families devastated by poor care at the time that they were supposed to be at their happiest. I'm at a loss to understand deprioritising maternity services, the one service that every single one of us will need at least once in our life.”