The death of a baby before or shortly after birth should always be reviewed by the hospital to understand what happened. A review should offer to support you and other members of your family to understand why your baby died. It could also help to prevent other babies from dying from the same cause. In the weeks after your baby died, the hospital will hold a review meeting.
The review meeting will:
- Try to understand what happened and why your baby died.
- Answer any questions you may have.
- Look at medical records and test results, including a post- mortem if you have one.
- Talk to staff involved.
- Look at the guidance staff follow in similar cases.
The review may also provide the hospital with information that can help change the way staff work when they look after pregnant women and their babies.
Your thoughts, feelings and questions are important. Before you leave hospital, staff should inform you about next steps and offer the chance to ask any questions about your care then or in future. To support you in doing this, the hospital should provide you with a contact person called a ‘key review contact’. Your key review contact will:
- Call you within 10 days of you going home to inform you again about the review process.
- Ask if you would like to ask any questions or share your concerns with the review team.
- Give you choices about how you might contribute to the review, either in person, online or via telephone or email.