The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) has said that hundreds of babies are dying every year in England due to failures in NHS maternity care.
The figures come from a study jointly conducted by two charities, Tommy’s and Sands. Both charities are devoted to helping families deal with the loss of a baby, either during pregnancy or after birth.
According to Sands, around 4,500 babies die every year in the UK, representing an average of 13 families every day experiencing the pain of baby loss. Around 15 per cent of pregnancies still end in miscarriages.
Many of the deaths are apparently avoidable and the report claims that since 2018, 2,500 babies died due to problems in NHS maternity care. In some cases parents decided to abort their child after being wrongly told that their baby had life-limiting genetic disorders.
An investigation found “a series of deficiencies in care, knowledge and process” led to the incorrect diagnosis being given.
According to the Office for National Statistics, stillbirths accounted for just under 0.4% of births in 2023, down from 0.5% in 2010, but still above the government’s target of 0.26%. Neonatal deaths occurred in 0.14% of cases in 2023, again better than the 0.2% figure in 2010 but worse than the official government target of 0.1%.
The report states that progress on meeting these targets has “stagnated” and there is little chance of the NHS meeting these targets.
Dr Robert Wilson, who heads Sands and Tommy’s joint policy unit, said: “Hundreds of fewer babies a year would have died since 2018 if the government had met its ambition to halve the rates of stillbirths and neonatal deaths in England by 2025.”
He added, “The response from government and policymakers to the ongoing crisis in maternity and neonatal care and the scale of pregnancy and baby loss in the UK is simply not good enough. Too many people continue to suffer the heartbreak of losing a baby.”
Clea Harmer, the CEO of Sands, said: “These are not simply numbers, these are babies who are loved and will never be forgotten by their parents and families.”
