Gower MP Byron Davies speaks of grief over loss of child

A Welsh Conservative MP has spoken of the personal heartbreak he has suffered over the loss of a child.

Byron Davies was one of a series of politicians to speak in a Commons debate intended to try and break the silence around losing a baby.

The Gower MP said that he and his wife lost a child in the 1980s when there was "a stigma" about it.

He said: "It was taboo. It was almost an embarrassment actually to bring it out in public."

"We couldn't discuss the grief and sadness that we felt," he said.

Mr Davies said that with a "cruel incident" a "cherished future is cruelly taken away", adding that "talking about problems is always a sign of strength never a sign of weakness".

'Powerlessness'

He told MPs that the best care should be provided for mothers who have suffered "this agonising loss".

"But I also think its crucial that we support fathers," he said, "who whilst being strong for the mother and focusing on her needs also has to bear this terrible loss."

Mr Davies described a "a great feeling of powerlessness and anguish when one sees a wife... rushed into hospital and theatre with no idea of the issue or the outcome, when all you have tried to do is start your own family".

"In an instant the whole world of your family, your life, spirals out of your control with you a bystander to your fate and your future with no power to help your loved ones."

Mr Davies said that he supported the idea of statutory parental leave for those who have suffered such a loss.

The debate was opened by former Conservative North Wales AM Antoinette Sandbach.

Now the MP for Eddisbury, in Cheshire, she lost her five-day old son in 2009, and has described baby loss as an issue that had too often been "brushed under the carpet".