A quarter of full-term babies who died of oxygen starvation during labour might not have died if they had been born in office hours rather than at night or at the weekend. How can this be happening? A baby's life should not rest on whether or not they are born in office hours.
The numbers of deaths due to oxygen starvation in labour is a good measure of the quality of care on a labour ward. An asphyxiating baby needs to be spotted quickly and responded to rapidly in order to prevent severe harm. This can only happen if the right staff with the right expertise and access to the necessary facilities are immediately available.
Yet across the UK, around 100 babies' deaths every year could be attributed to the quality care they received out of hours. As 70 per cent of births happen at night, why is night-time care any different to that on offer in the day?
This study confirms the stories that Sands hears time and again from parents whose baby has died and who feel that the care they received was below standard because the staff were poorly prepared to deal with the unexpected, or that it took too long to access the facilities that might have saved their baby's life. The loss of a baby is hard enough to bear, but it is even more agonising if you know that the death might have been avoided.
Furthermore, this latest study looked only at the babies who died. What about all the near misses - the babies who just survived, but who may have suffered damage that could affect the rest of their lives? These are exactly the cases that result in millions of pounds in litigation claims being paid out by the NHS every year. How much more sensible to put the money into better maternity care across the board, and prevent more deaths and injury in the first place.
Janet Scott is research manager at SANDS, the stillbirth and neonatal death charity.
