Campaign for inquests in the case of stillborn babies

Posted 28/06/2011

Ashtons Legal and bereaved parents Liz and Declan Ling are seeking a change in the law to allow inquests to be requested into the death of stillborn babies. They believe that the current regime misses a very obvious opportunity to investigate the causes of stillbirth and to make recommendations for how similar deaths may be avoided in the future.

Rosamund Rhodes-Kemp, who heads the Ashtons Legal medical injury team, explains:

“Approximately one baby in every 200 is stillborn. Death can occur during the second half of the pregnancy or during delivery. There is a wide range of possible causes including infection, maternal illness, birth defects, problems with the placenta which result in the baby being starved of oxygen, or birth trauma. There are two factors however which are common to virtually every stillbirth. Firstly, the parents have an overwhelming need to know why their baby died and whether the death could have been prevented before they can move on with their lives. Secondly, they want to do everything they can to make sure that other couples don’t experience the pain that they have suffered. Without recourse to an inquest it can be hard to satisfy these objectives, particularly as it is reported that in up to 50% of stillbirths the cause of death remains uncertain.

Empowering bereaved parents to request an inquest following a stillbirth would help in a number of ways. It would increase their chances of really understanding why their baby died, whether the death might have been preventable and, if so, obtaining an apology if the fault lay with the medical profession. Where it identified flaws in care during pregnancy or labour, it would enable more pressure to be put upon the NHS to supply better training, facilities, or whatever is necessary to minimise the chance of the same error being made again and another baby being lost in the same way.”

Liz and Declan Ling are the bereaved parents at the centre of the campaign. They are determined to do all they can to bring about improvements in the system to minimise the instance of stillbirth, and that includes making inquests available to parents. They are also taking practical steps to help the hospital in which they lost their own son and have already raised funds for, and donated, a new CGT monitor and have money for another one in the pipeline.

Their own tragedy occurred in May 2007 when they lost their son Ottis. They already had one son, and Liz had a normal and healthy pregnancy second time around. She was ten days overdue with their second child when she awoke feeling unwell and was rapidly encouraged by her midwife to go to hospital as she had concerns over a possible urine infection and also over the baby’s heart rate. The events of the next few hours left Liz feeling helpless, frustrated, and finally utterly devastated. She was monitored sporadically and moved from one ward to another, with the result that she felt no one was taking proper care of her or her baby, even when it was abundantly clear to her that she was in full labour. Only when her waters broke and contained meconium was she finally taken back to the delivery suite. Their son Ottis was born shortly afterwards but could not be resuscitated.

Liz says: “In the absence of an inquest the only way for us to try to find out whether with appropriate earlier medical intervention Ottis would be alive today, and to obtain an apology from the hospital, was to appoint solicitors and pursue a clinical negligence claim. Many bereaved parents are left feeling that they don’t have the emotional strength to do this following their loss and the legal system should be providing answers as a matter of course”.

Ashtons Legal and Liz and Declan Ling are hoping to set the wheels in motion for legal change. It is hoped and believed that many Coroners would support this change.

This issue has been covered in the Daily Mail this week.