"The foetal trace showed signs of distress. The female senior registrar sent me home advising that I ‘count kicks’. My baby died two days later"

A mother’s experience of Oxford University Hospitals Maternity Services in 1992, 1993 and 1996:

In my third trimester I felt more and more concerned about the lack of movement of my baby. Accompanied by my midwife, I went up to the JR for a scan. The foetal trace showed signs of distress. The female senior registrar sent me home advising that I ‘count kicks’.

My baby died two days later, and I gave birth to a dead baby. My lovely midwives came to his funeral.

My son, [name], was born 14 months later, induced at 38 weeks on my assistance. Since losing [name], and the pregnancy with [name], I have had persistence stress related psoriasis.

My daughter [name] was born in 1996. My pregnancy felt the same as it did with [name], who was born dead. I insisted on a scan and was found to have leaking amniotic fluid. I was allowed to stay in hospital for daily monitoring.

My daughter also exhibited foetal distress but, her delivery was not prioritised. Instead of a Caesarean section, she went through a normal vaginal delivery. She was born at 32 weeks with zero apgar score on all counts. I was told she wouldn’t survive and that if she did, she would have cerebral palsy.

I took her home after 4 weeks in the hot room. She has her 30th birthday this year and works for the NHS as a speech therapist. The legacy of her poor care at the JR is a functional tremor, mainly in her hands. She copes with this brilliantly and resiliently.

My experience of JR care in the 1990s was awful - arrogance and complacency - and a lack of intuition and listening. My psoriasis was certainly triggered by the trauma of this.