East Kent hospital baby deaths: Mothers felt blamed by medical staff

Two mothers who lost their babies at a hospital trust at the centre of a maternity scandal say they felt they were blamed for the deaths.

The women spoke to the BBC ahead of the publication of a report examining up to 200 incidents involving mothers and babies at East Kent Hospitals Trust.

The trust previously said it was "determined to learn any lessons".

Helen Gittos, who lost her daughter Harriet in 2014, said she was treated with "contempt" by the trust.

The independent review, led by Dr Bill Kirkup, was launched after up to 15 babies died at two hospitals in Margate and Ashford.

The report, which covers incidents from 2009 to 2020, will be released on Wednesday.

Ms Gittos said Harriet, who was born at The Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Hospital in Margate, was a "full term" baby, and "a perfectly healthy child".

"She sustained a brain injury during her birth and lived for just a week," she added.

"I think it's quite clear that we were implicitly blamed for what happened."

She said she "heard by accident" there would be an investigation at the hospital following the death and she tried to become involved with it.

"(But) that was treated really with complete contempt," she added.

"It is desperately difficult to deal with the death of a child, but on top of that to have to deal with the way the trust responded, how we were treated."

Kelli Rudolph and Dunstan Lowe lost their daughter Celandine at five days old, after she was born at the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford in 2016.

They also feel they were blamed for her death and that their concerns were dismissed by hospital staff.

"Their response to their poor medical judgements was to blame me," said Ms Rudolph. "That is what I've had to live with.

"In the end we trusted that the medical establishment would listen and would care, and were honest in their claims they were seeking to improve care. But now, five years on, it's very clear to us that's not the case."

Mr Lowe said the Kirkup report would be "the bridge between the pain we've experienced and the anger and the urgency for the things that are broken to be repaired immediately".

The East Kent Hospitals Trust said it will issue a statement when the report is published, and has previously apologised for "not providing all the people of East Kent with the high level of maternity care they need and deserve".

It has also published a new strategy for excellence in maternity care.

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