How couple's response to personal tragedy will help to save the lives of unborn children

As part of our series of articles on local people making us proud by improving the place we live and work in, GEORGE PALMER-SOADY talks to a couple campaigning for better maternity services after the loss of their child

- By GEORGE PALMER-SOADY

WHEN Sarah and Jack Hawkins were expecting their first child, Harriet, in 2016, they experienced the emotional rollercoaster of excitement and nervousness familiar to most parents.

“We'd got the pram ready, we had her nursery all set up - we were waiting for her arrival,” Sarah said.

Jack added: “Both of our jobs were busy and we were successful - we were excited about what this new life in our home would bring.”

The pair had both moved to Nottingham for university from their respective homes - Sarah from County Down, in Northern Ireland, and Jack from Reading.

Having both worked for several years for Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH), where they met, they were expecting a straightforward birth. But after a traumatic five-day labour at City Hospital, Harriet was born stillborn.

The couple were told she had died nine hours before she was delivered and that their daughter’s death was due to an infection.

But Sarah and Jack, who had worked as a senior physiotherapist and a doctor, respectively, knew this wasn’t the case.

What followed was a battle by the couple to have their story heard, a campaign which continues amid various investigations.

The memory of their baby daughter's death remains painfully vivid.

“It was horrific - we left the hospital with an empty car seat and went home with all the baby stuff in the house,” Sarah said. “More than anything, we were just so confused because we couldn’t work out how you could have a healthy baby and not have her come home.

“Those weeks and months were horrific - no one was listening to us, and, as clinicians, we knew a full-term healthy baby doesn’t just die.

“The fight with the trust was actually devastating - we couldn’t even grieve because of their behaviour.”

Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) - which runs Queens Medical Centre and City Hospital - initially said there was “no obvious fault” and that Harriet had died from an infection.