The Labour MP was born eight weeks premature (Alamy)
3 min read
A Labour MP who is campaigning for every new maternity unit to include bereavement suites for grieving parents has told PoliticsHome that her premature birth left her and her mother “fighting for their lives”.
Rosie Wrighting, elected for the first time at the July general election, on Tuesday introduced a bill to Parliament to ensure that parents who go through the experience of losing a baby do not have to grieve while surrounded by joyous parents.
The MP for Kettering told PoliticsHome that not having a private and quiet place to process a loss or stressful period “can make a heartbreaking situation even more traumatic”.
Wrighting, who was born eight weeks prematurely in Kettering General Hospital, said: “I was very, very small, and mum was fighting for her life. I was fighting for my life, and both of our futures were pretty uncertain.
“My mum has discussed in detail how she found that experience, particularly in a maternity ward, where you are understandably around happy mothers.”
She added that her mother still remembers that experience 26 years later.
Wrighting said that while the introduction of these bereavement suites would not take away the pain of having a traumatic or complicated birth, it would mean that mothers and parents can be in an environment where they can have privacy and comfort.
Currently in the UK, 13 families a day lose their baby before, during or shortly after birth — equal to around 4,500 babies a year.
The MP said that she had already been contacted by individuals since the introduction of her bill, explaining how devastating the loss of a child had been when there wasn’t a bereavement suite available.
She added that as a result, the families had found the “devastating loss even more difficult to overcome because they were traumatized by the situation they were in when they were in hospital, based on where they were placed”.
While several bereavement units have been opened around the country, these have been as a result of local fundraising and donation initiatives.
The Maternity Units (Requirement for Bereavement Suite) Bill would make it a legal requirement for any new maternity units to include a bereavement suite. it will move onto the next stage of the legislative process, its Second Reading, later this month.
Wrighting said that it was also important to ensure that the suites were located in spaces where the grieving families would not have to pass through the main maternity ward to reach the private space.
Asked about the matter of funding for these spaces, Wrighting said that that was a job for Whitehall.
However, she said that it was important to remember that “there is a cost of not doing it”.
“If mothers are unable to recover in a space where they feel like they are comfortable, they might end up needing more support further down the line in terms of mental health support, or maybe if they go through another pregnancy.”
