Anguish of families hit by the toll of stillbirths

Parents devastated by stillbirth have gone to Parliament today demanding changes. Catherine Scott reports.

Seventeen babies are stillborn or die shortly after birth in the UK every day.

That leaves 6,500 devastated families every year.

Today the charity Sands, has organised a parliamentary reception in the House of Commons, to launch a new report: Preventing Babies’ Deaths: What Needs to be Done which claims that 1,200 babies’ lives could be saved every year.

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The purpose of the reception is to highlight to Government officials some of the key facts and issues.

Despite medical advances in many other areas of public health, in the last decade these figures have barely changed. According to a recent series on stillbirths in the medical journal The Lancet, the UK has one of the worst stillbirth records, ranked second from bottom among 35 similar high-income nations.

Among those attending the reception in London are Leeds-born Faye Gallagher.

Faye had complications while pregnant with her first baby Louie.

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“I had a very small bump but the midwife kept telling me there was nothing to worry about,” says Faye.

“I was young and it was my first pregnancy and so you put your faith in the professionals; you have to. My midwife was so busy that you had to wait weeks to see her.

“When I was about 35 weeks I couldn’t feel him moving but there was a five-week wait to see my midwife. So I went to the hospital.”

Faye was told she needed a scan but was sent home and told to organise it through her midwife who booked a scan for two weeks time.

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“I then saw another midwife at a routine appointment and she couldn’t hear a heart beat. My baby had died.”

Faye is angry and believes the death of her baby was preventable.

“You are never told about stillbirth when you are pregnant.

“We know so much now about how to prevent cot death but stillbirth is still not talked about. My baby’s death was preventable and so are thousands of others in the UK every year. I would like more information to be given to expectant parents.”

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Faye has gone on to have another, health baby Leo who is now 18 months old.

“I was treated so differently when I was pregnant with Leo because of what had happened to me with Louie. I was scanned every few weeks and saw the consultant every time. When I went into labour I had the same midwife with me the entire time. This is what all women should get not just someone who has suffered a stillbirth.”

Faye is raising funds and awareness for Sands and believes that the Government should take action to stop the needless death of thousands of babies. Sands wants urgent action to ensure minimum levels of staffing and the right skills mix in all areas of maternity care and perinatal pathology service delivery

Neal Long, chief executive, Sands: “The scale of baby deaths in the UK is shocking. 17 babies are stillborn or die shortly after birth every day, with stillbirth being the largest contributor to child deaths under the age of five years. Our new report, Preventing Babies’ Deaths: What Needs to be Done, describes the devastating impact these deaths have on parents and their families, and highlights the areas where we believe progress can be made to save hundreds of babies’ lives.

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“A third of stillborn babies – around 1,200 babies – are born late in pregnancy, at gestations when they might safely be delivered. But routine antenatal care is failing to detect far too many babies who need help. These babies’ deaths are those that Sands, researchers and clinicians working in obstetrics, believe are avoidable deaths.

“We want to see real national commitment to tackling this ignored tragedy and preventing all avoidable baby deaths in the future. We want lives saved and families spared the desperate heartbreak of losing their precious baby.”

For more information visit www.uk-sands.org

The babies who die early

17 babies die every day in the UK, 11 are stillborn and another 6 die shortly after birth – this equates to 6,500 babies dying every year

1 in 200 babies are stillborn (die in the womb after 24 weeks gestation) and a third of these deaths happen at full term, (after 37 weeks gestation)

1 in 300 babies die before they are a month old

Risk factors include: being an older mother (over 35), smoking, alcohol or drug misuse, maternal obesity, being from a black or Asian ethnic group, being from a deprived background.