MP pushes for bereavement suites in hospitals

Rosie Wrighting, MP for Kettering, presented her Maternity Units Bill to the House of Commons on Tuesday

A proposal to ensure bespoke bereavement suites are built into all new maternity units has been brought before Parliament.

The Labour MP for Kettering, Rosie Wrighting, presented her Maternity Units Bill on Tuesday, in the House of Commons.

The bill would make it a legal requirement for newly built maternity units to include private bereavement spaces, ensuring grieving families are not placed alongside those experiencing the joy of childbirth.

"[Losing a baby] is made more difficult, when [mothers] experience this in a maternity ward... surrounded by mothers and families celebrating new life," Wrighting told the Commons.

"For parents where the local hospital has a dedicated bereavement suite away from the main labour ward, they can process that pain in privacy and peace."

Rosie Wrighting recently visited the extension at Kettering General Hospital being built into a bereavement suite

According to figures from bereavement charity Sands, 13 families in the UK lose a baby each day before, during, or shortly after birth.

At Kettering General Hospital, (KGH,) families who suffered baby loss were previously placed in rooms within the main labour ward.

That changed after the launch of the Twinkling Stars Appeal in 2019, which raised £1m for a new bereavement suite, now under construction as part of a maternity unit extension.

Ms Wrighting, who herself was born a premature baby at KGH, said: "Kettering General cares for up to 100 families a year who lose a baby.

"They will now be cared for in a suite that has a bereavement area with... a cold cot for precious time with their babies.

"What we can do is try... not to add to those feelings and make an awful situation even worse by not providing support in an understanding environment."

The bill will now go to a second reading on 16 May.