MP moves Commons to tears for her stillborn daughter

LUCY WOULD HAVE BEEN 20 THIS YEAR – BUT DOESN’T EVEN EXIST

Political Editor IT’S usually a bear pit where insults are exchanged and jibes are thrown.

But this is the moment North East MP Sharon Hodgson moved the Commons to tears as she spoke about her stillborn daughter, who would have celebrated her 20th birthday this year.

Mrs Hodgson said she rarely spoke about her daughter, Lucy, but had done so now to highlight a quirk in the law that meant her daughter “officially did not exist”.

Because Lucy was born at 23.5 weeks, the pregnancy was officially classed as a miscarriage rather than a stillbirth. This meant there was no birth certificate and no death certificate.

And Mrs Hodgson said this made the experience even harder to cope with.

The Washington and Sunderland West MP said: “Her name is not on the deed for the burial plot because although buried there, she did not exist.”

She told fellow MPs: “I hope that members can appreciate and understand how hard this was to deal with and to understand at the time, when I was dealing with what was, and still is, the worst thing I have ever had to experience in all my life.”

She paused several times during her speech as she explained what happened to her third child, and colleagues on the Labour benches could also be seen dabbing their eyes.

MPs were debating the Civil Partnerships, Marriages and Deaths (Registration Etc) Bill, which includes introducing formal recording for a stillborn child born before 24 weeks’ gestation and gives coroners the power to investigate late-stage stillbirths.

Mrs Hodgson said: “Had Lucy been born alive at 23 and a half weeks, she would have been incubated immediately and rushed in the waiting ambulance, with flashing blue lights, to the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle, where they have the regional centre of excellence for special care baby units for very premature babies.

“She would have had the very best world-class care. She would have had a birth certificate and she would have been celebrating her 20th birthday this year.

“But sadly she was stillborn, so there were no flashing blue lights, no incubator and no birthday parties, ever.

“And as I found out to my horror, there was no birth or death certificate.

“As I held her in my arms and had to come to terms with what had just happened, I also had to come to terms with the fact that, officially, she did not exist, and that I would not be getting any certificate of her arrival or death.

“She was three to four days short of the required 24-week legal age.”

Mrs Hodgson added: “Her heart was beating throughout my labour, up until just minutes before she was born. She just could not make the final push into this world.

“Because of that, and because of a matter of a few days, she does not officially exist in any records, other than in our memories and our family records.”

The Bill has been brought forward by former Tory minister Tim Loughton and also seeks to see how the Government can extend civil partnerships to opposite-sex couples, plus to include a mother or second parent’s name on marriage and civil partnership certificates.

Home Office Minister Victoria Atkins said the Government was set to review the issue of stillbirths before 24 weeks’ gestation.