Midwife wins award for support of grieving parents

Agness Nisbett said her grandmother, who was a midwife, inspired her career path

A midwife who experienced the heartbreak of a stillbirth and went on to pioneer a programme to support grieving parents has won a Pride of Britain award.

Agnes Nisbett, 87, set up the Born Whilst Sleeping programme at Leicester Royal Infirmary, where she worked as the city's first black nursing officer.

She set it up after experiencing the stillbirth in 1973, and drove changes that included a designated room for women to give them a space to grieve away from other mums and newborns on the main maternity ward.

"I feel fantastic about winning a Pride of Britain award, but, really, I've always just wanted to give everyone the best of myself," Ms Nisbett said.

Ms Nisbett says she has had countless letters of thanks for her care

It is the 25th anniversary of the awards, formed in 1999, which honour British people who have acted extraordinarily in challenging situations.

After going through the tragedy, Ms Nisbett's son John was quickly wrapped up by a midwife and taken away, until she stopped her.

"I'd delivered stillbirths myself then whisked them out of the room," she said.

"But when it happened to me, I just needed to see my child.

"I got to look at him, to hold him – and that was momentous for me."

Ms Nisbett, who retired in 2004, introduced the private space for mothers after her own experience.

"I was put in the end bed on a ward of 40, among all these women and babies," she said.

"I remember waking up screaming in the night because the reality hit me.

"When I became a team leader with a budget, we started.

"I just thought we had to have somewhere for these mothers."

Along with the dedicated room, Ms Nisbett also organised clothes for the babies and other midwives to take photographs and palm prints for mothers to keep.

Her inspiration

Ms Nisbett came to Britain from St Kitts and Nevis as part of the Windrush Generation in 1959 and has two other children and four grandchildren.

She said: "I believe God has blessed me in abundance because I have given the best I could to every woman I looked after.

"I have got countless letters of thanks for my care, even the sadness as well – but there have been many joys in my career.

"I remember my dad telling me that his mum, my grandmother, was a midwife in Nevis, and that inspired me.

"I sometimes think I was born to be a midwife."