Assembly stillbirth inquiry after mother's campaign

Wales
Thursday 28 June 2012 at 6:15am

A third of stillbirths are at the end of a full term pregnancy Credit: PA

The Assembly's health committee is holding a one day inquiry into stillbirths in Wales. It's the result of lobbying by a Isobel Martin, a mother who lives near Sennybridge in Powys. Her first baby was stillborn and she's giving evidence today.

My evidence is based on my own personal story and the shortcomings which led to my baby Holly being stillborn. I started The Holly Martin Stillbirth Research Fund in 2010 to raise money and awareness for stillbirth. I was shocked that the stillbirth statistics in the UK have remained static for at least 20 years and the stillbirth rate in the UK is one of the three worst in Europe out of 35 countries. I was pregnant with my first baby in 1985. It was considered to be a low risk pregnancy. I was 25, a professional physiotherapist, married and living in my own home in an affluent town. I was of normal weight, never smoked, never took drugs and never drank alcohol during my pregnancy. I attended every ante-natal visit. I had no health problems. Everything was completely normal up to 37 weeks.

Isobel Martin noticed that her baby was moving less. Her midwife told her to record the number of kicks, which were getting fewer. A series of tests was carried out over the next three weeks until an ultrasound scan confirmed that the baby had died. Holly was stillborn after a 16 hour labour.

Isobel Martin started her campaign 25 years after Holly's death because there was little sign of progress in reducing the number of stillbirths. In contrast, there are now fewer neonatal deaths when babies with medical problems are born alive. The stillbirth and neonatal death charity Sands, which is also giving evidence to AMs, says routine antenatal care in Wales is failing to spot too many babies who need help.

Today it is rare to lose a baby in a pregnancy where a risk has been identified. But most stillbirths are in pregnancies where the risk was not spotted: the ‘low risk’ women who in fact have high risk babies are being missed. A decrease in fetal movements can indicate that a baby is in trouble yet it is common for parents to tell Sands they reported a decrease in their baby’s movements but were reassured and sent home, only for their baby to die hours or days later. Parents in Wales are not equipped with good advice about fetal movements, but neither are many health professionals fully aware of the latest guidance from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. In Norway a focus on improving fetal movement advice was accompanied by a significant fall in the numbers of stillbirths.

Sands says the perception that these babies are somehow 'meant to die' must be challenged. In 90% of cases there is no lethal congenital anomaly or any significant fetal condition. The majority of stillbirths are unexplained. The Welsh Government has established an National Stillbirths Management Group to look at how more can be done to achieve 'a healthy woman, a healthy pregnancy and a healthy baby' whenever possible.