Sherwood Forest MP and chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on maternity, Michelle Welsh (Lab) delivered a powerful speech in Parliament during a baby loss debate she co-sponsored earlier this week.
In the debate, Michelle Welsh MP called for urgent reforms to fix the country’s broken maternity system and ensure that no more families suffer preventable heartbreak.
Speaking in the House of Commons, Michelle Welsh MP shared her own experience as a harmed mother and paid tribute to the bereaved and campaigning families who have fought tirelessly for change.
“We must stop whispering about baby loss in the shadows,” she told the House.
“We must speak about the preventable errors, missed opportunities and systemic failures in our maternity services that have turned dreams into dust. Grief is a fact, but these failures are not inevitable.”
The debate marked a deeply emotional moment for bereaved families and campaigners from across Nottinghamshire and beyond, many of whom travelled to Westminster to hear MPs share their constituents’ accounts and push for progress on maternity safety.
Welsh called for a renewed focus on continuity of care, workforce support, and true accountability, highlighting that too many women are still not listened to, and too many families are left fighting for answers.
She said: “Almost one in five stillbirths and neonatal deaths in this country could have been prevented through better care,” she said. “Every woman deserves a birth experience where she feels heard, respected and, above all, safe.”
Addressing the stigma around different types of birth, the MP urged a culture change:
“For too long, the narrative has been poisoned by judgment. The safest birth is the most informed birth.”
She also issued a challenge to regulators, including the CQC, NMC and GMC, to take responsibility for past failings:
“In Nottinghamshire, those organisations were informed over and over again about what was happening – and nothing was done. To this day, no one has been held accountable.”
Closing her speech, The MP paid tribute to the families whose babies’ memories continue to inspire change:
“All of us here are bound by a shared, heartbreaking truth: no parent should have to say goodbye before hello. We must pledge to them and to ourselves that we will fix maternity services and build a legacy of safety so powerful that their short lives will forever protect the long lives of others – and we will do it for good.”
Health Secretary Wes Streeting echoed her call for change during the debate.
He told the House: “In the spirit set out by my honourable friend, the Member for Sherwood Forest, that ‘grief must be the engine of change’, the stories I have heard from those families firsthand will be the steel in my spine to deliver the change they need.”
