Eddisbury MP Antoinette Sandbach has been speaking on national television about the fact bereavement services for families who have lost babies ‘are not good enough’.
The former Welsh Assembly Member, who has been investigating the disparity of bereavement care in UK hospitals, said on the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire show this morning that she found services were ‘patchy’ with some parents unable to access help.
Ms Sandbach broke down in the Commons last year as she spoke about losing her own baby Sam, who died in 2009 from sudden infant death syndrome when he was five days old.
She said there was no bereavement counselling available where she lived and she only got help when a charity paid for a counsellor to visit her home.
'There should not be a battle for support'
“Parents who are coping with the pain, bewilderment and grief of losing a child should not need to battle for support,” she said. “The best hospital trusts have a clear pathway to that support and the Department of Health needs to use the resources it has committed to ensure that is available across the NHS.”
Neonatal care minister Ben Gummer said he was working to ensure there was consistent support across the UK.
In 2013, one in every 216 births in the UK was a stillbirth, while one in every 370 babies died within the first four weeks of life, the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show.
