I felt like I was dying after being left alone to deliver my dead baby for nine hours

A FIRST-time mum said she felt like she was dying when she was left to deliver her dead baby for NINE hours.

Sarah Hawkins' baby daughter Harriet was stillborn in April 2016 at Nottingham City Hospital - but she could have survived.

The senior physiotherapist and her husband Jack, who also works for the NHS as a hospital consultant, said they both knew something had gone wrong.

Medical staff told the couple their baby had died from an infection, but neither would believe it.

Sarah told Radio 4's Today programme: "Being two clinicians here at the time we thought 'you've seriously got this wrong' and I was then left for nine hours trying to deliver a dead baby because of communication errors.

"This whole time, I can't even describe the confusion, I felt like I was dying."

The couple pushed for an external review, which found Harriet's death had indeed been preventable.

Sarah had not experienced any problems during her pregnancy and had planned for Harriet to be delivered at the Queen's Medical Centre.

But when the time came, this hospital could not admit her due to understaffing.

During the review, the couple's lawyers claimed that over four days they had made 10 calls to the trust but were discharged home after two visits.

They also claimed that staff had struggled to find Harriet's heartbeat - even confusing Sarah's for the baby's at one point.

Staff also allegedly failed to review Sarah after she was discharged with a "very significant" amount of opiates, or perfrom a cervical exam before she left, which lawyers said would "almost certainly" have resulted in her staying in hospital.

The heartbroken couple are still speaking out for justice six years later and called for a public inquiry into the hospital's responsibility.

But sadly they are not alone - as a number of baby deaths sparked outcry from bereaved families and campaigners.

NHS maternity services in Nottingham - both the Nottingham City Hospital where Harriet died and Queen's Medical Centre where she was intended to be born - were initially rated as inadequate in 2020.

And even the latest reports have said maternity services at both sites remained inadequate overall.

Inspectors, who visited in March, said the department did not have enough staff to care for women and keep them safe, according to the BBC.

Sharon Wallis, Director of Midwifery at Nottingham University Hospitals said: “We offer our sincerest apologies to Mrs Hawkins and her family for failures in the care around the delivery of baby Harriet.

“Keeping mums and babies safe and providing them with high quality care remains our top priority, and we are committed to continuing our work with local families and healthcare partners to make the changes still needed.

"Our teams are working hard to make the necessary improvements, but recognise we have more to do and are absolutely determined to speed up the pace of change and deliver quality services for women and their families.”

Although the hospitals have started making improvements, Donna Ockenden, who led an inquiry into maternity failings in Shropshire, is still going to chair a review of services in Nottingham, it was announced on Thursday.

She told the BBC: "Very clearly, the CQC issuing a safety warning notice and the stories that we're all seeing - parents have shared widely - there is clearly something that is very, very wrong at the trust.

"I'd say to parents speak up if you have concerns, but you should feel confident that the enhanced scrutiny that there is on the trust can only be positive."