Maternity: Broken Trust aired last night on ITV.  It was a difficult but compelling watch, highlighting maternity care failings at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (“NUH”) which have caused or contributed to the avoidable deaths of mothers and babies. 

The individual stories are tragic and harrowing but have become a collective voice to try and achieve accountability, justice and to drive change. 

The documentary highlights the fact that additional suffering and harm is caused to these families from not feeling believed or heard, and from having to fight to get answers about what happened to their babies.  However, these families continue to bravely share their experiences as a “call to arms” to seek accountability and to try to prevent future tragedies from occurring. 

We heard about the Ockenden Review (an independent review of maternity services at NUH) and how family voices are at the heart of the review.  However, the statistics represent the stark reality of the situation.  Whilst NUH reported 467 deaths over a 10-year period (excluding stillbirths), the Ockenden Review is reviewing around 2,000 cases involving dead or harmed babies or mothers over that same 10-year period.  That is equivalent to 4 incidents a week. 

Harriet Hawkins’ mother, Sarah, commented “babies shouldn’t “just” die…it’s not “just” one of those things”.  She and countless other families describe a deny, defend, and deflect culture when seeking answers as to what has happened and why.   

What is clear is that the conversation around maternity safety needs to be re-framed to focus on how to deliver a system and culture that is proactive rather than reactive, one which is problem-sensing, responsive, open, and transparent with an ongoing commitment to learn from failures. 

At Moosa-Duke Solicitors we are supporting families affected by maternity care in Nottingham and the East Midlands and we support the call for a national maternity inquiry in the UK to identify and address systemic failures in maternity care. 

If you have concerns about the maternity care that you or a loved one has received, please contact us for a no-obligation consultation or call us on 0116 254 7456 or 0800 952 0010, or send us an email to enquiries@moosaduke.com   

The Ockenden review team are open to all families and if you are impacted by the documentary or this blog piece, you can contact the Family Psychological Support Service on 0115 200 1000 or via enquiries@fpssnottingham.co.uk