Report finds that too many baby deaths are preventable

The Each Baby Counts project has recently focused on the analysis of cases of stillbirth, neonatal death and babies born with brain damage and investigating the potential factors contributing to these.

The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists have assisted by carrying out an inquiry into the NHS regarding this and have identified that seven out of ten of the above could have been avoided.

The inquiry focused on local investigations into the 1,123 babies who were born stillborn, or died during labour or within their first week of life, or suffered brain damage during 2016. It was found that 124 of those 1,123 babies were born stillborn, 145 new-borns died and 854 were brain damaged, most commonly as a result of being deprived of oxygen.

It has been identified following the inquiry that common factors that have contributed to these figures include a lack of staff, the pressure on maternity units and a failure by midwives and obstetricians to follow guidelines. It was found that in 45% of the cases looked at, staff had not followed the guidelines and the best practice as set out because of reasons such as a lack of training, being overworked or not recognising the problem. In each case examined, an average of seven different things had gone wrong or not been considered adequate.

Each Baby Counts project’s conclusions are intended to improve maternity care and reduce the potentially avoidable deaths and serious harm to babies during birth and their first seven days.

Kate Smith, Solicitor in the Medical Negligence team at Ashtons Legal comments: “There is no doubt that the statistics identified in this inquiry are shocking. What makes this even more shocking is that these statistics could be avoided. The inquiry has identified the potential factors which contribute to the figures above, all of which can be easily addressed and if done so we should see that these figures reduce considerably. There is a clear need for immediate action to ensure that mothers and their children receive the best possible care on every occasion and in light of this recent inquiry and their findings, there is no excuse for this to not be addressed.”