An emotional speech was made about child loss by Vicky Foxcroft, the Labour MP for Lewisham and Deptford, in the House of Commons yesterday.
Foxcroft made a heartbreaking speech about her personal experience of child loss after the issue of stillbirths was raised in the chamber.
Many members were moved to tears after hearing Foxcroft’s account about her teenage pregnancy and how she had to turn off her daughter’s life support five days after giving birth.
Her baby had the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck during labour, causing her to starve of oxygen and to be stillborn.
After her daughter’s death, Foxcroft said she was “treated like a kid, not a grieving mum” when she tried to address the issues surrounding the implications that occurred during her traumatic labour.
Foxcroft explained she had never heard of Baby Loss Awareness Week (October 9-15) but it had been all around her for such a long time.
She explained how there had been “online discussions and comparative badges” whilst also wearing a badge herself.
According to Tommy’s, an organisation who fund research into pregnancy problems, over 3,500 babies are stillborn every year in the UK.
Tommy’s say: “This lack of public awareness is paralleled in low levels of funding and the lack of funding is reflected in the low output research relating to stillbirth.”
During her speech Foxcroft was shaking from nerves, but she explained that it was so lovely to see people “supporting each other and making sure when needed, important issues are raised and addressed.”
Lewisham bereavement counselling service told Foxcroft that there is a two to four month waiting list, which she described as “just not good enough.”
At the end of her speech Foxcroft said: “I want my experience to be heard by young women in my constituency and the across the country who have or may go through this in the future and just to say: you’re not alone.”