A heartbroken mother from Northern Ireland has highlighted the need for reform of support for parents of stillborn babies after being denied the chance to hold her dead son.
Sarah Lucas, 31, gave birth to her son, Hugh Thomas, in March at Craigavon Area Hospital. Little Lucas was born at just 17 weeks. Tragically, he was stillborn.
After being denied gas and air to help her with the physical pain of the birth, Sarah’s trauma was added to when she was not allowed to hold her son.
“That choice was taken away from me. He was just put in a box and left on a windowsill on top of a cabinet while they were trying to sort me out because I was hemorrhaging and going in and out of consciousness”, Sarah recalled.
“Even though some people might think you’re not giving birth to a full-term baby, you’re still giving birth... and it still hurts.”
Sarah also says that she and her family are still waiting for promised bereavement support.
As well as the ongoing absence of such support, Sarah was sent a letter by mistake requesting her attendance at her next antenatal appointment. “Receiving things like that, it is like poking a scab, a wound, it is just another reminder of what I do not have”, said Sarah.
Sarah hopes that Craigavon Area Hospital and other maternity services will learn from her case and improve bereavement services.
SPUC comment
A SPUC spokesperson said: “Families, and especially mothers, of stillborn babies deserve compassion and support. They should not have their grief compounded by administrative blunders and ill-considered maternity procedures.
“If there is, indeed, a lack of empathy for unborn babies and their mothers at an early stage of gestation, this absence of loving care and respect for the humanity of the unborn cannot be allowed to continue.
“Mothers, families and their babies deserve better.”
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