Laura-Jane Seaman was 36 when she died giving birth. Her family was told that with better care there was a 99.9% chance she would have lived.
Jade Hart was 33 when she died shortly after her son’s birth. Her death, the coroner said, was contributed to by neglect.
Two women who never lived to see their babies grow up, Laura-Jane pictured below on the left and Jade on the right. Two women who make up part of a shocking statistic which shows just how many mothers have died before, during or shortly after giving birth in the UK.
MBRACE-UK conducts national surveillance and confidential enquiries into maternal and infant deaths and their most recent report showed a 20% increase in mothers’ deaths between 2010 and 2024 in the UK.
When we looked behind these percentages, we found this related to 1,155 pregnant women and new mothers who died in the UK. What is more, further analysis shows that more than half of those deaths may have been prevented with better care.
This all adds up to more than 1,000 missing mothers - birthdays, first steps, first days at schools, they will never see.
In 2015, Jeremy Hunt, the then health secretary, pledged to halve maternal death rates from 2010 levels - the deadline was last year. Instead it’s gone in the wrong direction. He has now told Channel 4 News that this is “deeply concerning”.
Marian Knight, Professor of Maternal and Child Population Health at Oxford University, pictured below, said there has been a 57% increase in direct or obstetric pregnancy related causes of death and that the vast majority of those deaths were preventable.
“So those women,” Prof Knight said, “if they’d had different care, it would have made a difference to their outcome.”
Tomorrow, Baroness Valerie Amos will shine a further spotlight on England’s maternity units when she publishes her rapid review - following the Nottingham inquiry last week, Morecambe Bay, Shrewsbury and Telford and East Kent.
Inquiries, reports, pages of recommendations into the deaths and harms to mothers and babies, and yet little seems to have changed.
In her interim report, Baroness Amos said:
“Women and families have told us about the high levels of distress, pain and suffering that are caused when death or serious harm occurs, leading to psychological trauma and a loss of trust, which is compounded when the system fails to respond quickly and appropriately.”
The senior midwife, Donna Ockenden, last week published her findings into Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust and said the failures were “systemic, deep-rooted and over a number of years”. She described a “toxic and bullying culture” and women and families ignored when they tried to raise concerns.
Yet she also said that very few of the recommendations from her Shrewsbury and Telford report four years ago had been put into action.
There are now growing calls for a Maternity Commissioner and for a statutory public inquiry.
Something has to change, families have repeatedly told us. Sarah Shead, Laura-Jane’s mother,
“I never want any other grandmother to hold their hour-old baby grandson and fear for the life of the mother that’s just given birth.”
While Ric (Jade’s husband) pictured below, talked so movingly about Jade and the pain of walking out of the hospital with his baby Hugo but without his beloved wife at his side.
Denise Townsend, Acting Chief Nursing Officer for Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We extend our sincerest condolences to Laura-Jane’s family; her tragic death greatly affected us all at the Trust. The safety of maternity care is a top priority. “Following investigations into the circumstances that led to her death, we’d like to reassure her family and others using our maternity services that our staff are now better trained in recognising and responding to the early signs of deterioration, in order to prevent this from happening again.”
Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals, where Jade died, said her death was tragic and it was deeply sorry.
It added: “The findings of the inquest, alongside wider national learning, have informed changes to clinical practice, training and oversight across our maternity and obstetric services.
“We remain committed to continually improving the care we provide and ensuring every woman and family receives the safest possible care.”
