Commons in tears as MP tells of losing a baby at 16
Harrowing tale unites House in drive to cut premature deaths
AN MP moved the House of Commons to tears yesterday as she told how she has kept secret the devastating death of her newborn daughter.
Her voice breaking, Vicky Foxcroft described how baby Veronica had survived for only five days after being born with the umbilical cord wound around her neck in February 1994.
After agreeing to the life support machine being turned off, she was finally able to hold her ‘little angel’ for the first time – and did so for hours as her tiny heartbeat slowed and then stopped.
Miss Foxcroft, 39, Labour MP for Lewisham Deptford, became pregnant as a 16-year-old schoolgirl but has kept the tragedy a secret from many friends for years.
Yesterday, she held the Commons spellbound as she revealed her harrowing story for the first time. Her brave speech – which she said was the hardest she had ever given – came during a debate to mark Baby Loss Awareness Week.
Trembling as she spoke, Miss Foxcroft said: ‘This week has been a tough week as I’d never heard of Baby Loss Awareness Week, but it’s been all around me. The absolute truth is, I struggle to talk to my family and my very close friends about it.
‘I also want to apologise to my many friends who I haven’t told. It’s not because I don’t want you to know, or I’m embarrassed, it’s just because I find it so very hard to do so. So I guess now’s the time for me to talk and pay tribute to my little angel Veronica.’
Lancashire-born Miss Foxcroft, who attended Haslingden comprehensive school, in Rossendale, said: ‘When I was 16 years old I became unexpectedly pregnant.
‘At first I was terrified and even debated having her adopted, but during my pregnancy something changed. I became so attached. I was excited – I was going to be the best mum ever.
‘Me and my partner at the time named our baby girl Veronica. We couldn’t wait to meet her.’ But during a difficult labour, which was ten days overdue, midwives lost track of Veronica’s heartbeat. Miss Foxcroft was taken to an emergency room and had a forceps delivery.
‘The umbilical cord had been wrapped around her throat for 20 minutes,’ she recalled.
‘She lived for five days but we had to agree to the life machine being turned off. I got to hold her then for the first time – until her heartbeat stopped. She stayed alive for hours. I never wanted to let her go.’
MPs in the chamber, including Labour’s Gloria de Piero sitting next to her, began welling up as she went on: ‘My “baby awareness week” is every year – the 22nd to the 27th of February. My five days of her being alive. She was never able to cry, to smile. But I loved her and I desperately wanted her.
‘I still love her. She is always in my thoughts. After Veronica was taken from me, my coping mechanism was to chuck myself into college and work. I couldn’t talk about it. My heart was broken. I don’t have children now because I live through the fear of the same thing happening and I just couldn’t do it twice.’
If Veronica had lived, she would be 22 years old. Miss Foxcroft, who is divorced, said: ‘The pain does get easier over time, but it never, ever, goes away,’ she added. The MP went to De Montfort University in Leicester after her A-levels. Then she worked at the unions Unite, Amicus and the AEEU before becoming an MP last year.
As she sat down after her emotional speech yesterday, veteran MP Sir Nicholas Soames stood up and wiped a tear from his eye as he said: ‘I hope that the whole House will read the honourable lady’s speech and will feel that she has done something incredibly brave today, and courageous.’
Conservative MP Victoria Prentis broke down in tears as she explained that, after two miscarriages, she developed HELLP syndrome – a life-threatening kind of pre-eclampsia – during her third pregnancy. Her son died, and she said it was ‘not at all clear that I would sur- vive’. She pleaded with ministers to commit to reducing miscarriages and premature deaths.
The debate was called by Tory MPs Antoinette Sandbach, who lost her five-day-old baby to sudden infant death syndrome in 2009, and Will Quince, who lost his son last year. Miss Sandbach said that, in marking the week, ‘Parliament is helping to break the silence around the death of a child – which is the most devastating loss that can happen to any parent’.
Mr Quince’s son with wife Elinor was diagnosed with Edwards’ syndrome, a genetic condition. He told Miss Foxcroft: ‘We are breaking a taboo [today]. And we are showing parents up and down this country that it’s OK to talk about the babies and the children that we have lost.’
‘Pain never goes away’