"I am 100% sure if the maternity unit had not neglected me, and I was on a high risk pregnancy, my son would definitely be alive."

A mother’s experience of Oxford University Hospitals Maternity Services in 2022-2023:

My second son was stillborn after the Oxford services refused to put me on a high risk pregnancy after my first born was born at 33 weeks and spent 3 weeks in the neonatal unit in Bradford Hospital, due to suspected placental abruption, but I never received my placenta back.

I was in oxford for my second son and due to my medical records not saying my son was born at 33 weeks, they insisted they would treat my second pregnancy as a first pregnancy and put me on 'low risk' at 28 weeks. I said to my Lotus team midwife I might have lost my mucus plug, when she eventually saw me she said I was measuring small and an infection might be detected, I went in for a scan to which they said they had concerns but due to me being on a low risk pregnancy they didn't keep me in and said they would see me again in 2 weeks, a week after that at 29 weeks and 5 days I got major cramping, called the midwife unit they said 'keep an eye on it' within 10 minutes of that conversation.

I was calling for an ambulance due to waters breaking with very dark red blood and huge clots (tennis ball sized) by the time I was in the hospital they said they couldn't detect a heartbeat and he was dead, I was then refused an epidural and given a button medication and paracetamol, that did nothing for the pain.

Within 6 hours of arriving at the hospital my son was born not breathing and they decided they would do no intervention to try resuscitation on him. I birthed my son on the ward where all mothers were having live babies, I was eventually moved to level 7 after many hours of listening to live births.

When I eventually got discharged (I asked for an early discharge so I didn't have to leave at the same time as the live babies born on the same day) they kept pushing it and pushing it, forgetting about discharging me and eventually let me out at the same time as all the other families.

I was then told the ONLY bereavement support I could receive was from [midwife’s name] - the same person who signed my son’s death notice. I stated I couldn't do that and 3 years later I have still not received any form of mental health help, I’ve become agoraphobic due to everything and live in very close proximity to the hospital (within a 2 minute drive) so there is a daily struggle of being close.

I am 100% sure if the maternity unit had not neglected me, and I was on a high risk pregnancy, my son would definitely be alive.