Norden couple shares story of stillborn daughter ahead of Baby Loss Awareness Week

A couple from Norden, whose daughter died after a series of failures at the Royal Oldham Hospital, have shared their story to raise awareness of the mistakes that were made, ahead of Baby Loss Awareness Week, which takes place from 9 to 15 October.

The day before baby Harper died, mother Amy Harrison was one of four women being induced who were waiting to be taken to the delivery suite for progression of birth. Of those four women, Amy was the most overdue at 41 weeks and six days and should have been the first to be taken through.

However, due to the wrong dates being recorded in her notes by midwives this did not happen, and she was left in a side room overnight with poor monitoring. Signs that Harper was becoming distressed were not picked up on and at around 8am a check of her heart rate found that she had died.

Amy, who is 30 and lives in Norden with her husband Jamie, was left devastated by Harper’s avoidable death, which was compounded when she learned of the poor management of the maternity unit that was putting mums and babies at risk.

Amy said: “This Baby Loss Awareness Week I would like maternity services to look at the care they are providing and ask is this truly a safe environment for mothers and babies because it’s nothing short of life-changing when something goes wrong.

“Losing Harper has had an absolutely catastrophic impact on my life and in many ways, I am a shadow of my former self. Sharing her story is also an opportunity to speak about safety in maternity care and raise awareness of the failures that are causing the deaths of too many babies and how these can be addressed.

“I want people to know about what happened because if it can help to bring about change that can save even one baby, then another family will avoid this horrendous loss. It’s extremely sad that it takes a baby to die for that to happen, rather than it being a given that maternity care will always be safe, but until something changes it will continue to be a lottery as to whether you take a healthy baby home or not.”

Investigations were carried out by the hospital and the Health and Safety Investigations Branch (HSIB) with both identifying individual failings in Amy’s care, and wider systemic issues impacting the care provided to women across maternity unit at the time of Harper’s death in May 2020.  

The unit was at the time very busy, in part due to staff shortages caused by Covid, however the investigations uncovered issues unrelated to the pandemic. In addition to Amy’s details being recorded incorrectly in the hospital’s records, there was a lack of appropriate systems and processes to escalate women at risk and a failure to manage the flow of patients through the maternity service.

The hospital’s own investigation reported that a contributing factor in Harper’s death was the “culture of acceptance of delays” at the hospital.

After a legal case for medical negligence was brought against the Royal Oldham Hospital by Ellen Driscoll, a solicitor specialising in maternity negligence at law firm JMW, the hospital trust made a full admission in September 2021 that its failings had caused Harper’s death and apologised to Amy and Jamie.

 

 

The hospital will eventually pay compensation to the couple; however Ellen said the case was never about money and that unless the systematic issues at the hospital were fully addressed, more babies would be at risk.

Ellen said: “At JMW we fully support Baby Loss Awareness Week as an important time of remembrance and unity for bereaved parents. For our clients, who have lost a baby as a result of negligence, it is also an opportunity to raise awareness of problems within maternity services and campaign for change.

“The loss of a child is always indescribably devastating; however Amy and Jamie have also had to deal with the knowledge that Harper’s death was avoidable. They are further troubled by the wider issues within the maternity unit at Royal Oldham which left mothers at risk.

“Maternity care has frequently been in the news this year, with the Ockenden Report identifying key areas of change and the Royal College of Midwives confirming that increasing numbers are leaving the profession, due to the strain upon them.

“I hope that Amy and Jamie’s brave decision to share Harper’s story will highlight the need for nationwide systemic change in maternity services.”

Amy is walking 310,000 steps in October to raise money for baby loss charity Sands. Anyone who would like to sponsor her can do so via her Just Giving page.