Babies‘put at risk’ by optimistic midwives

OVERLY optimistic midwives may have cost thousands of babies their lives, one of the leaders of the profession has said.

In a remarkable admission, Louise Silverton said midwives too often assumed the pregnant women they saw were healthy and would not suffer complications.

Their attitudes may have contributed to thousands of avoidable stillbirths, said Ms Silverton, director of midwifery of the Royal College of Midwives.

She made her comments at the launch of a damning report into ‘full-term’ stillbirths that con- cluded 600 of the 1,000 stillbirths occurring late in pregnancy every year could have been prevented.

Tell-tale signs that warn a child is at risk of stillbirth are missed – or dismissed as unimportant – the authors of the MBRRACE report found, while reviews after the event rarely get to the truth.

Ms Silverton said: ‘Midwives are optimists … you tend to assume that babies will grow well. It is very upsetting when you think of all the babies who potentially could have been saved.’

All full-term stillbirths should be subject to robust, externally reviewed investigation, said the authors of last Thursday’s report.

Their recommendation marks a major victory for The Mail on Sunday which is campaigning for a Clara’s Law. Named after tragic Clara Tully who was wrongly declared stillborn, this would make it a legal requirement for all deaths of full-term babies in labour to be reported to the coroner.

Report contributor Dr Tracey Johnston said hospital stillbirths reviews they had examined often reached the wrong conclusions.