Our baby died due to failings in NHS care. Any mumsnet troops out there willing and able to help me force change?

[bubble99]

One of our healthy, term twins died recently due to total mismanagement of care caused primarily by understaffing. I have posted at length about this on 'Miscarriage and Bereavement'.

I would now like to start a campaign to raise awareness of the chronic understaffing in midwifery services in London and surrounding areas where the cost of living is high.

In particular, I would like the whole issue of London and Outer London Weighting to be urgently reviewed. It seems insane that hospitals are shelling out millions to pay for agency midwives and nurses when the logical course of action would be to substantially increase the allowance paid to staff working in areas where property prices/rents are higher. This would hopefully increase recruitment and retention of staff. In addition, nurse/midwives homes which have been sold off to private developers need to be replaced so that student midwives/nurses can afford to train and live in these areas.

Anyone out there prepared to help me with some research? We are prepared to use our own tragic case to highlight the issue in the national media.

If our son's death means that you and your unborn baby are safe during labour then his death will have not been in vain.

and bubble, i put my bump (or lack of) on members profile...

LGJ. And as well meant it was taken. I don't think you could ever offend me

Jangus has really affected me. I feel 'lucky'. I have a baby to hold and she doesn't. She's been destroyed and nothing I can say will ever change that.

I think BTW that a letter to the wives of the leaders / ministers / other key people (maybe even celebs to get them onside), would be a fab concept. Maybe even co-ordinate the losses so one letter reveals 2 / 3/ 4/ 5 however many tragedies that occured in x month or y weeks before the general election or whatever. I could see the letter, esp. if it is short and punchy being reproduced in the papers.

Yeah... an open letter is a neat idea.

You have really made me feel stronger for tomorrow. Like I said it means more to talk to you because you understand.

Right folks,
That's me for the night.
Going to try and get some sleep.
Will let you know how we get on.
Sorry for hijacking your post bubble.
g'night
xxj

hub. I hate to ask this, and I'm not lazy, just preoccupied. Could/would you draft a letter for me? You've got the full history on my previous posts and, as I'm one who is prone to typos (typo's?) and you're fully in touch with your feminine side you may be able to spell/say it better than me.

Goodnight jangus. We'll be thinking of you at 11am.

BubbleXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

No worries. I will sketch an outline (ie. with certain facts missing but some kind of skeleton structure) and e-mail you to see what you think. You can flesh it out or advise if it does / doesn't look like it conveys what you want. Maybe we can upload it after it's been knocked around a bit and any writers / journos on here can also comment ?

Bubble and Jangus, I wish with all my soul that this wasn't happening, but I am so glad you can support each other - I'm doing an LGJ here, not knowing if this sounds right, but I will post anyway.

With much love to the Bubbles and the Janguses - and all of you who are doing something useful for Bubble and Jangus, amazing. Will be thinking of you tomorrow, Jangus (well, later today) xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Yes - agree 100% with what hunker said - I wish you had Bo and Lilli-Mae asleep in your houses tonight and this thread didn't have to be here. You are both very brave women and I am proud of you. XXX.

bubble and jangus, your stories have made me cry so much, i have often felt selfish, grieving for my misscarriage and my son sam, when at least i have 4 beautiful to hold and love, yes i have had a couple of labourswhich were badly mamnaged and could have resulted in the death of my babies, but it didnt. i do know how it feels to lose your first born, although i only went to 26 weeks, the anguish was unbearable, i had scraped money together for baby stuff, which i had bought already, as a poor student i couldnt afford much, and no he wasnt planned, but i still wanted him, very much.when i was sent home, with nothing, not even a photo, im not afraid to admit that i became suicidal, i tried to kill myself, so many times and failed, my family didnt want to know and my mum said it wasa blessing in disguise!, i could continiue with my studies, naturally the answer in my case was fall preg again as quickly as possible, my babies father was horrified when it happened again, but he stuck by me.and now i have my lovely 13 year old daughter.I wouldnt wish this grief on any one and my heart aches for those whose babies have died, but when its due to incompetance and understaffing, i feel so frustrated, angry and so very sad. this is 2005, babies should not die because of medical mistakes, it just shouldnt happen, and as I have found hospitals every where are understaffed, the large teaching hospital i work for, doesnt have an extra on call bleep, the hospital where i gave birth to dd2, has no on call bleep.these hospitals watch their budgets because their star rating is based on how they manage their budget, yet they shell out for agency staff and pen pushers, people these days fear going into hospital in case they contract MRSA, again theresno reason for it to be so prevalent, im sorry to rant, but this has to change, itsabout time the government woke up to the NHScrisis.

One idea: The Thousand Bump March.... Get one thousand women, all pregnant, to do some kind of rally / presentation of petition to Downing Street etc. Maybe special T shirts for the bellies. That would get some cameras, surely ?

I think the 1000 Bump march is a REALLY good idea.
It would be best headed up by a pregnant celeb and maybe sponsored. Any PR company folk here on MN?????

I wonder whether any of the prominent advertisers on MN would like to support it?

These things always take expense - publicity, the T shirts, licensing and policing, a good press rep to ensure effective coverage.....

Look at the 'breastcancer moonwalk' as a model?

i certainly think it would be a good idea to present apetition to the newly elected government.

Can Mumsnet Towers help with this campaign?

Fantastic idea, the 1,000 bump rally, Hub. You're a marvel

get NCT to sponsor the t-shirts

... sneaky... stop it.

Hey, maybe we could combine the large bellies with the Moon Walk and then we'll really get the pervs and cameras !!!!

bub: if this idea has good fit with your campaign message, we could approach the June / July / August / September threads for bumps (I've spared the waddling mammas in May !). I guess there's perhaps 20 - 50 posters on each thread who could get down to London, and each may know other pg laydees through NCT / M&T / NHS parentcraft / friends etc. so I'd expect you'd hit 500 names pretty much instantly and 1000 if the message was simple and relevant enough for everyone to think 'yep, I should do something about that'... even if they're not political beasts, IYSWIM...

Behind the bellies, you could have a 'gaggle' of bf mammas and simultaneously break the world record for largest number of babies being breast fed at any one time. (not sure what that number is... think I read something about it once and it was only a thousand or so but I may be v. wrong...) - also although this would mean the event is more inclusive, and allows parents of newborns / toddlers to participate, I'm not sure it doesn't 'dilute the message' / move the debate into another area of social politics IYSWIM....

Would be interested to get comments on both concepts, esp. from anyone who has organised any kind of rally / march thingy.

TC is PR isn't she? (And will soon have her very own Bump!)

Great idea, hub. What a whizz you are! (Do you have time for a day job too? )

I have to leave work now and I'm out tonight, but just seen this and count me in. I want to help, I'll be back to read the whole thread and discuss how etc.

Oh and Bubbles, good on you girl, well done.

Looked up bf record - 1130 women at the Community Theatre, Berkley, California, August 2002 - here . Should be easy to beat that in St. James' Park / The Mall.

And what about the bottle feeders ?

Haven't had time to read all of this, but how about the 1000 Bumps & The lucky ones, I for one would be happy to march to stop this happening to anymore women.

Just nipped into this thread again to say re marches, I used to be the CND press officer so yep, I've worked on them...

Oh, motherinferior you're booked !

'Lucky ones', and also bereaved parents certainly could be groups to include, as of course would be dads who've lost babies as a result of a non-functioning system too...

Hmmm.. lots to think about / debate... will definitely be important to refine the message, and perhaps Bo's parents and Jacob's parents and Lilli-Mae's parents would be the first ones to suggest how they feel the message might best be presented...

I won't even mention the mass cloth nappy change.

Hope Lucky Ones didn't sound smug, it wan't meant to, it was meant to illustrate all the women who were lucky, but could just as easily have not been.