Better medical care could have saved babies’ lives Montgomery Martin / Alamy

Three-quarters of the babies who die or are brain damaged during childbirth in the UK might have been saved by better medical care, an inquiry has concluded.

The report blames staff for failing to recognise when a baby is in danger, for instance, by not continuously monitoring the baby’s heart rate during labour. Other problems include staff being overworked.

Called Each Baby Counts, the report is a result of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists investigating 1136 cases of babies born in the UK in 2015 who either suffered brain damage during birth, or died during delivery or in the next week. The report comes after a string of scandals over substandard care at UK hospitals.


For instance, between 2003 and 2014, 11 babies and one mother died at a hospital run by the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust as a result of poor care. Failure to monitor babies’ heart rates has also been blamed for baby deaths at the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust.

Maureen Treadwell from the Birth Trauma Association charity says the report looked at the right cases, but should have tried to identify which hospitals have higher rates of poor care.

“These cases are catastrophic for people’s lives,” says Treadwell. “There’s almost nothing worse for a parent than to know their child is permanently disabled and it could have been avoided.”

Read more: UK doctors may officially warn women of vaginal birth risks

This article appeared in print under the headline “Baby deaths avoidable”