Official Report 883KB pdf
The final item of business is a members’ business debate on motion S7M-00815, in the name of Patricia Gibson, on baby loss awareness week 2026. The debate will be concluded without any question being put.
Motion debated,
That the Parliament supports Baby Loss Awareness Week, which takes place from 9 to 15 October 2026 and has the theme, Together, we care, focusing on nurturing mental and physical wellbeing and supporting one another; recognises that the week provides a safe and supportive opportunity for those affected by pregnancy and baby loss to share their experiences and to feel that they are not alone; recognises the devastating impact that baby loss can have on parents and the wider family; notes official statistics showing that there were 318 baby deaths including 159 stillbirths in Scotland and 4,477 baby deaths including 2,552 stillbirths across the UK in 2024; further notes research by the charity Tommy’s indicating that half of adults in the UK have been affected directly, or through someone they know, by pregnancy or baby loss; acknowledges the significance of the global #WaveOfLight on 15 October, during which families around the world light a candle at 7PM local time in remembrance of babies who have died; pays tribute to the charities and organisations that support bereaved parents and families; commends the work of pregnancy and baby loss charities across Scotland and the UK, including Ayrshire Baby Loss Support, a non-profit organisation that supports anyone affected by baby loss and is a member of the Baby Loss Awareness Alliance, a group of more than 80 charities and organisations from across the UK that collaborate during Baby Loss Awareness Week to raise awareness of pregnancy and baby loss and to improve support for those affected, and recognises the valuable contribution that such organisations make in raising awareness and helping families through the painful experience of pregnancy and baby loss.
17:55
I thank all the members who signed my motion on baby loss awareness week, helping to make the debate possible, and those in the chamber and in the public gallery who are attending the debate this evening.
I pay tribute to all those charitable organisations that work so hard to support those who are living with baby loss; they visited the Parliament today and provided briefings for the debate. I especially thank Sands, Simba, Held In Our Hearts, Ayrshire Baby Loss Support and the Lullaby Trust. For the work that those organisations do day in, day out to support those who are dealing with baby loss, they deserve our thanks and recognition.
When I was a member of the United Kingdom Parliament, I secured the first ever debate in that Parliament on the issue of stillbirth. I led for my party on the annual baby loss awareness week debates, and I worked cross party to deliver statutory paid bereavement leave for all parents who lose a child up to the age of 18, introducing an amendment with that leave added on to statutory maternity leave for those who endure a stillbirth. However, there is still much work to be done.
Many members will be aware of my and my husband’s personal experience of the issue. In 2009, after five years of fertility treatment, I had what doctors and midwives called a “textbook perfect pregnancy”. I was healthier than I had ever been, until my due date, when the most extreme form of pre-eclampsia, known as HELLP—haemolysis, elevated liver enzymes and low platelet count—syndrome, left me in terrible pain.
After being treated with appalling disregard when I arrived at the hospital, I was reluctantly—and with very poor grace, to put it mildly—shown to a bed and pumped full of morphine, only to awake and discover that my full-term, 8lb 5oz son, who was an otherwise perfectly healthy baby, had died. In a cruel twist of fate, the date of his death is recorded as 15 October, which is baby loss awareness day. With repeated attempts to force a natural delivery, to which my body would not respond, my liver ruptured and my husband was told that I, too, would not survive.
The reason that I begin the debate in this way is that, although my experience should be, and ought to be, an isolated and unusual event, even 17 years later I continue to hear other stories from other devastated couples that show that it is still not isolated or unusual. It is extremely hard to escape the fact that nothing much has changed since my experience in 2009. When things go wrong, the walls go up and the silence comes down. Hospitals close ranks, and promised investigations lead to nothing but meaningless clichés about lessons being learned.
The frustrations that I and my husband suffered after the loss of Kenneth James Stewart Gibson, and the lack of answers, led us to commission two independent reports of our own, from two top obstetricians at the University of Edinburgh and Newcastle University respectively. They found, independently and separately, that systematic and basic failings had happened at every turn. Still, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde refused to accept any responsibility or provide any meaningful explanation.
We left the hospital not with a child in the car seat, but with an appointment at the local undertakers to arrange a funeral. At the funeral of a baby, there is only the silence of unfulfilled potential—a life stopped in its tracks by a system that simply does not work and for whom no one is held accountable, due to cover-ups and evasion. The system is so huge that it simply rolls over and crushes those who question it.
Fast forward 17 years on from the death of baby Kenneth, and we hear the same experience repeated by too many bereaved parents. Today, therefore, I have some specific and commonsense reasonable asks of the Minister for Mental Wellbeing, Public Health, Sport, Alcohol and Drugs. I understand that the Scottish Government has launched an independent review of maternity services, and so it must. However, I urge the minister to ensure that the review extends to all health boards so that we can see clearly which boards have failings to address, and where, and which, boards model better practice from which others may learn.
Will the review launched by the Government ensure that it takes into account the serious and devastating maternity failings in the past on which the failings of the present have been built? The failings that are happening right now did not develop overnight; they have taken root in a culture of secrecy, cover-up and obfuscation when things go wrong. A meaningful review must not be limited in where it can shed light—it must uncover, admit and acknowledge the culture that has grown over time.
Will the review make sure that health boards are not marking their own homework? When things go wrong, they must be reviewed and investigated by an independent third party, not someone who themselves is embedded in the system and culture that they are charged with investigating. Will the review set out what can be done to ensure that the standards and protocols that are already in place are adhered to? If that is done, many of the babies who die would not do so—basically, people just need to ensure that they do their jobs in the way that they have been trained to do them, and if they do not, there has to be some accountability.
For the future, will the minister ensure that data collection is consistent across Scotland, so that we will know the extent of any progress that is made in saving babies’ lives? Health boards across Scotland do not consistently record and disclose adverse incidents. Without consistent reporting, it is impossible to truly measure any progress that might be made. There needs to be compulsion and consistency across Scotland on the reporting and collection of data.
I fear that, unless those elements are included in the review’s terms of reference, it will be difficult to see how we can move the dial on maternal and neonatal health. We cannot continue as we are, with recurring patterns and systematic failures—it simply will not do. If we are to have that independent review, it has to be meaningful.
In Scotland, in 2025 alone, 300 babies were stillborn or died in the first year of their lives. That is not inevitable—better care would make a huge impact on those appalling and unacceptable figures. If there was a disease that killed 300 babies each year in Scotland, there would be outrage and anger, and demands for action, yet with cases of stillbirth and babies dying in the first year of their lives, most of which are avoidable, there is simply not enough outrage. There needs to be.
I do not want to stand in the chamber every October, just as I did in the House of Commons, and hear that lessons will be learned, only for nothing to substantially improve. The experience of too many expectant parents is that they go into hospital to have a baby and emerge with their hearts broken, a sheet of card with handprints and a funeral to arrange. That cannot go on.
I referred earlier to the wonderful charities that help families through the trauma of stillbirth and neonatal death. The fact is that they have more people to support than they should. Maternity care has to be better. We cannot save the lives of all the babies who have died due to systematic failures—they are gone. However, the independent review, if it is to do what it needs to do, which is to save more babies’ lives, address shortcomings and challenge poor care, needs to focus on the asks that I have put to the minister tonight.
I ask the minister to please do all that she can to make sure that the review is not an opportunity for meaningful improvement that passes us by. I ask the Parliament and the Government, and the minister, to grab the opportunity with both hands, for all the children who are yet to be born. [Applause.]
We move to the open debate.
18:05
I thank Patricia Gibson not only for securing the debate, but for sharing the story of baby Kenneth with members today; I pass on my regards to you, too, Presiding Officer.
There are some things in life for which it is hard to find the words, and the loss of a baby is one of them. When a baby passes, it is a loss of firsts: the first cuddle, the first Christmas, the first birthday and all the other firsts that will never come.
I believe that every human life has dignity and value, and I do not think that that dignity depends on how long somebody gets to spend on this planet. A life does not become less precious because it was brief. Loss is loss and grief is grief, and we should not measure the value of a life by how far along a pregnancy was, or measure grief by how long the child was here. For some families, the grief is immediate; for others, it comes back years later, with a birthday, a photograph or a song, or simply seeing another child when their child would have been around the same age. There is no timetable for grief and there is no right way to grieve.
That is why this year’s baby loss awareness week theme, “Together, we care”, matters so much. You do not have to have experienced baby loss yourself to care about someone who has. Sometimes you do not need to find the right words—you just need to be there. We need to remember that the person carrying that grief is not always the person we see crying. It can be the dad, the husband, the brother or the uncle, who has gone back to work, day after day, making the dinner and trying to keep everybody else in the family going. They need support, too.
There has to be the right support at the right time, and in the right place, and that is where our local communities can make a real difference. I pay tribute in particular to Julie and Bryan Morrison and everyone at the Baby Loss Retreat. Julie and Bryan know this pain themselves—they lost their baby daughter, Erin. From that terrible loss, they have built something that helps other families through some of the darkest moments in their lives. They provide counselling, trauma support and remembrance retreats for bereaved families.
I have spoken before in the other Parliament about the work of the Baby Loss Retreat and the importance of recognising babies who are lost before 24 weeks, because recognition matters. Being able to name a baby, remember a baby and acknowledge that a life existed matters to those families. The work of the retreat reminds us that support is not about saying the right thing once; it is about being there afterwards. It is about recognising that grief does not have an expiry date, and ensuring that families get the support that they need.
The Scottish Government has taken important steps such as introducing a graded model of miscarriage care and funding the national bereavement care pathway, but there is more to do. The baby loss awareness alliance tells us that
“1 in 5 late miscarriages, stillbirths and neonatal deaths may have been prevented with better care”.
Where there are lessons to be learned, we have a responsibility to learn them, and where care can be improved, we have a responsibility to improve it.
However, Governments cannot do everything, and a lot of the real work happens through charities, healthcare professionals, volunteers, friends and family. For some families, faith is a part of how they make sense of their loss. It might be simply lighting a candle, saying a prayer or having a quiet moment to remember their child. There is something powerful in lighting a candle for a child who is no longer here, saying their name, remembering that they brought joy and knowing that their life had meaning. On 15 October, families around the world will take part in the wave of light, lighting a candle at 7 pm in memory of babies who have passed. It is one small light in the darkness—a small way of saying, “You were here, you were loved and you will never be forgotten.”
There is a quote from the Sands website that I think says a lot about what grief really is:
“Behind grief sits love, and who doesn’t want to talk, and celebrate and remember that?”
Let us remember these families and their babies; let us say their names and recognise the lives that they had and the love that surrounded them. Most importantly, let every family that is affected by baby loss know this: you are not alone. Your precious baby mattered, your grief matters and you do not have to carry that grief alone.
18:10
I thank Patricia Gibson for securing time for the debate and for her very powerful contribution, and I associate myself with all her remarks and her requests of the minister. Her words will give comfort to others in knowing that they are not alone, and that is the ethos of baby loss awareness week.
Presiding Officer, I had sought permission to leave the debate early as I am sponsoring an event in Parliament this evening, but I will now stay.
Baby loss is something that many families live with long after it occurs. It is the loss of a life that might have been, and a future that parents had imagined. When a woman or a family leaves hospital, the clinical care ends, but the grief does not. This week is an opportunity to remember that behind every experience of baby loss is a person, a family and a story.
For many people, the grief can be incredibly lonely, and that is why talking matters. I hope that women and men feel able to share their stories with those around them because, by speaking openly, they can let others know that their grief is real and their feelings are valid. They are doing a service to those around them by sharing their experiences with others who have experienced something similar.
This year's theme, “Together, we care”, focuses on nurturing mental and physical wellbeing. We must recognise our responsibility to see that services are appropriate to the mental and physical toll of baby loss and are there for those who need them. A parent who needs counselling in the weeks and months following baby loss should not have to wait, search endlessly or pay for the support that they need. Our duty does not end with offering condolences; we have a responsibility to take meaningful action and provide tangible support to families at one of the most painful moments of their lives.
We cannot erase the pain of losing a baby, but we can change how our society, and our healthcare system, respond to families that are experiencing that loss. First, we need to address the consistency and quality of care. Every hospital in Scotland should have appropriate, dedicated spaces for bereavement care. No grieving parent should have to sit in a maternity ward, surrounded by the sounds and cries of newborn babies, immediately after being told that they have lost their own child. Compassion should not depend on which hospital someone attends.
Equally, support cannot end when a family leaves hospital, because women need access to specialist, long-term psychological support following baby loss. We need adequately funded, easily accessible mental health support that recognises the trauma that is associated with miscarriage, stillbirth and neonatal death. That applies to fathers, too.
Supporting families also means preventing avoidable loss wherever we can. A briefing from Sands and Tommy’s has highlighted serious concerns about the quality and consistency of pregnancy-loss care in Scotland. We have heard directly in the Parliament, too, from families that are struggling to access care because the “Delivery Framework for Miscarriage Care in Scotland” is largely undelivered.
I pay tribute to the charities and the healthcare professionals and, above all, to the bereaved parents who have been brave enough to share their experiences and campaign for change. Let us honour them today with not only our words but our decisions, through better services, stronger standards and meaningful action. To repeat what Patricia Gibson said, let us make that part of the review.
18:14
I offer many thanks to Patricia Gibson for securing the debate and for sharing her dreadful loss.
We almost certainly all know someone, or a family, affected by a stillbirth or miscarriage or the death of a baby. About one in seven pregnancies end in miscarriage. Public Health Scotland collects miscarriage data routinely, but the results have not been published. Those statistics should be published routinely and without further delay. Often, in particular in the case of a miscarriage, those around the mother—fellow workers, or extended family and friends—feel and express sorrow and sympathy, and then expect the family to move on. Those affected are expected to bounce back and try again.
The charities that we have heard from know well that that is not what happens. We have heard how mothers can suffer from post-traumatic stress and may well be unwell themselves. Fathers and other family members may get little support. Children in the family who have been being prepared to welcome a brother or sister have little understanding, and their feelings may not be understood.
Sands, the baby loss awareness alliance and all the other charities that support these families have stepped into that void to support the families of the 338 babies who were lost last year. Each of those babies was someone’s son or daughter, and each death a tragedy.
The figures for stillbirths that are quoted in the motion are from 2024. National Records of Scotland has now published the 2025 figures, which show that stillbirths rose; we have to hope that that is a blip. Each one of those babies is a huge loss. Many of those losses happen in hospital, and we must be thankful to the staff who are present with the families in those moments. Those staff need support as well, as they are doing such a difficult job. I understand entirely that this is not always the experience that some have had from staff, but in general those staff do their utmost and feel very strongly about what happens.
It is encouraging that Scotland has, in general, been making steady progress in reducing stillbirths, and we hope that the rise in 2025 is a blip, but it is important that the deaths are recorded correctly. Each family deserves to know why their baby died and that the death was recorded correctly, and they want to know whether it could have been prevented. Across the UK, nearly every review of a baby’s death finds at least one issue with care. In more than a third of cases, the issue was relevant to the outcome.
I extend my thanks to the services that support families, such as the cherry blossom suite—a dedicated bereavement facility at Victoria hospital in Kirkcaldy that opened in June this year. It is designed to provide compassionate, private care for families who have experienced such a loss and who need the type of support that Jackie Baillie mentioned. The service has been funded by a £40,000 investment from the Fife Health Charity, and more than £8,000 was raised by local couple, Marley and Jon Dickie, in memory of their late son, Jase.
Held In Our Hearts also supports families across Scotland, including in Fife and Forth Valley, with its hospital to home service, which is so important in helping families who have lost a baby from 12 weeks of pregnancy up to preschool age. We hope that that can be extended to other areas.
NHS Tayside organises a children’s memorial service of remembrance each spring in Perth for parents and relatives who have lost a child before or shortly after birth. I am sure that that is much appreciated, and I am sure that we would all hope to take part in such activities.
Reform Scotland welcomes the independent maternity review that is now under way, led by Professor Christine McCourt. The remit for the review must be wide enough to ensure that lessons are learned from past deaths. Many parents are watching and wish to tell their stories, so I fully support Patricia Gibson’s asks of that inquiry and of the Scottish Government. We must listen to families.
18:12
I, too, thank Patricia Gibson for bringing the debate to the chamber. I am so sorry that she has had to bring a debate every single year, as we are still not seeing the progress that is so needed.
I thank every constituent that has written to me, shared their experience or advocated alongside Sands or other groups. Before I forget, I would like to give a shout-out for a local event, which will happen just across the road from the Parliament. The wave of light walk is organised by Held In Our Hearts and will take place on Thursday 15 October, starting in Holyrood park at 6 pm. It is a family-friendly event, allowing people to come together to honour all our babies and the families who grieve for them. It would be great to share that information widely for people in the city or further afield who would benefit from that in-person support, and I am happy to share more information with other members if that would be helpful.
I listen with a heavy heart to other contributions and always ask myself what we can say and do now. We cannot bring babies back, but we can act to show that those deaths were not in vain, as sharing awareness can drive improvements in care and support.
We are in a window of significant healthcare and local government reform that can bring opportunities in how we address inequalities, data gaps and workforce sustainability.
A briefing from the joint policy unit that was set up by Sands and Tommy’s, which I was grateful to receive, says:
“Unlike stillbirths and neonatal deaths, the total number of miscarriages and miscarriage rates are not reported in Scotland.”
If it is the case that we do not have the full picture, how can we set targets, monitor variation, address poverty outcomes and consider staffing needs? Of course, we have information from the Scottish pregnancy births and neonatal data dashboard and, as Helen McDade mentioned, data from Public Health Scotland on equality, but that does not go far enough. As health board reform progresses, I hope that the Government considers what data boards have, what they do not have and what they need to ask for.
Again, none of that will bring back the babies lost, but there is an opportunity for learning as we consider the future of maternity and neonatal workforces and look at recommendations, especially from the nursing and midwifery task force. Programmes such as hospital to home are fantastic examples of how counselling, peer support, guidance and services can come together.
The issue that we are discussing is not solely a health concern, but is more social and community related. It is a prime example of how care involves much more than just the medical setting. We know that mothers do not start and end with pregnancy and their child. They may have mental health conditions that must be considered, they are at risk of experiencing certain medical issues such as diabetes and pre-eclampsia, and they could be living in poverty or in difficult housing circumstances. Situations involving a stillbirth, neonatal death, pre-term birth, maternal death or brain injury can all be exacerbated by environment and might mean that targeted and fruitful support is required. Systemic and wide-reaching support is necessary: this is not just a hospital issue.
While we look at reform across the board, I encourage the Scottish Government to stay true to its commitments. I ask parties to come together on this issue, and it sounds like we really are. I ask organisations to continue holding us to account in order to ensure that we improve bereavement care and reduce preventable deaths in the future.
18:22
I also start by thanking Patricia Gibson for bringing this debate to the chamber and for her significant and important campaigning over many years on the issue. It is also important that we acknowledge our Presiding Officer for the way in which he and Patricia Gibson have spoken so kindly and beautifully about the loss of baby Kenneth.
Over the past few weeks, I have had the opportunity to engage with some of the charities that work to support bereaved parents and their families and friends. From the outset, as others have done, I want to pay tribute to them for the love and support that they provide at the most unimaginably difficult time for any parent.
A family friend once said to me that every life is important and must be celebrated, whether it is that of a stillborn baby or someone who has lived to be 100 years old, and I hope that today and baby loss week gives us the opportunity to do just that.
I know that every parent who has lost a baby wants to celebrate the life of their child and make sure that the world knows that they are loved and will never be forgotten. I welcome the positive progress that we have seen in trying to take forward the work that must be done on this issue, from the early mental health support that is provided by Held in our Hearts to the memory boxes that Simba provides to families across our country to honour and remember their baby.
However, it is also important to acknowledge that, for many parents, especially for fathers, the point at which they can often seek help is different. I have been told stories of fathers returning to work the day after such a bereavement. Often, for many fathers, especially if they have other children, the need to hold things together to protect and provide for the family will kick in and, therefore, it is critically important that we understand that services must be available and responsive at the time that is right for an individual when they want to seek support.
That whole-family support model is invaluable, and I want to pay tribute to Held in our Hearts, which has supported bereaved families for more than 30 years. It provides the specialist counselling, peer support, trauma-informed early intervention services and practical guidance that many people seek. Its flagship programme, hospital to home, is Scotland’s first early intervention opt-out bereavement service, and is delivered in partnership with the national health service.
What is frustrating, though, is that that standard has not become a standard that every parent in this country should be able to expect. As a Lothian MSP, I know how many parents have benefited from the programme and value it. However, by now, we should have implemented the programme as a national clinical standard, so that that care and support is available to people regardless of where they live in Scotland.
I hope that the Government’s implementation of its public service reform plans provides an opportunity for that situation to be fixed and to ensure that bereavement services are put in place wherever they are needed, and that we see that once-for-Scotland approach delivered in this area.
Charities have issued a number of asks, and I very much support Patricia Gibson’s call for the independent review of maternity services to be expanded so that it addresses the asks that Patricia Gibson has outlined. However, this debate also gives us an opportunity to ask the minister where the Scottish Government is going to move services forward and at what pace. For example, the provision of funding for the hospital to home programme in the Scottish Government’s budget is a fair ask, as charities are finding it more and more difficult to fund the services that they provide. As I have said, we need to ensure that the services that are being provided in Lothian are provided across the country. I hope that, in summing up, the minister will be able to touch on some of those points.
Finally, as other members have said, for many people in Scotland who have lost a baby, there will never be an opportunity to move forward. We need to make sure that our public services are there for them and that we can, in future debates, say that that is something that we have made right in this country.
18:26
It is a pleasure to follow Miles Briggs. I thank Patricia Gibson for the leadership that she has shown on this issue, not just in this chamber but over many years, including when she was in Westminster. I associate myself entirely with her remarks and with the calls that she has made to Government tonight. I say to the minister that Ms Gibson is not somebody who is particularly large, but she is not somebody whose requests I would shirk. If she is making calls to the Government, do not ignore her.
Moving on from that humorous point, I acknowledge that this is an incredibly difficult debate. The point that Mr Briggs put on the record about dads sometimes not being able to express themselves is a classic example of that. Even as I stand here just now, I do not know how much I plan to share tonight about our most recent experience of baby loss, which occurred just in June. The point that Mr Briggs makes about the support that is available to parents is incredibly important.
As Steven Bonnar has done, I want to make reference to Baby Loss Retreat in Glasgow. He was right to mention Bryan and Julie Morrison, who I would consider to be friends now. They are remarkable people, and the journey that they have been on and the way that they have channelled their energy to remember Erin, particularly through Erin’s app, is something that is to be commended.
I came to know about Baby Loss Retreat not through my own recent personal experience, but through the experience of a very dear friend I grew up with, Gillian McClellan, who also went to Garrowhill Primary School. Gillian and her husband, Christopher, experienced the loss of their child, Daisy, and they benefited from support from Baby Loss Retreat, not just through counselling but in terms of the retreats as well. It is a challenge for Bryan and Julie Morrison to run that organisation, because much of the work is done on the basis of good will. Given that many such organisations are doing the work that, frankly, the NHS has often vacated, I ask the Government to be mindful of that. I know that resources are tight—I am very alive to that—but I ask the minister to engage with Baby Loss Retreat, if for no other reason than to learn about the amazing work that it has done on Erin’s app, which I have certainly found quite helpful.
I do not want to make this debate about me or us—I do not think that that is the right thing to do—but there is a niche issue that I want to ask the minister to liaise with colleagues in the Department of Health and Social Care in England on, and she will understand why in a moment.
In England, there are baby loss certificates and, in Scotland, we have the memorial book of pregnancy and baby loss. We need to understand that families come in very different shapes and sizes. People’s arrangements are very different. The reality is that the arrangements around the baby loss certificate mean that, if a father is domiciled in Scotland, he cannot be recognised as the father of that child, and the same thing goes for the arrangements in Scotland: if the other parent is domiciled in England, they are not recognised.
I realise that that is a niche point. We will not be the only people who have been affected by that, but when things really matter to you, they really matter. I therefore ask the minister, politely and courteously, to engage with her colleagues in the Department of Health and Social Care and to rectify what I think is a very simple issue, which would bring an awful lot of serenity to those of us who have experienced the pain of baby loss.
18:30
It is a pleasure to follow David Linden. This debate, like so many debates of its type, really shows Parliament at its best. Families who have bravely shared their stories, MSPs and campaigners have all come together to highlight the importance of remembrance and reflection for baby loss. I thank Patricia Gibson, too, not only for sharing her story with us, as she has done in other chambers, but for bringing this members’ business debate to the chamber, because it is important that we get back on track to support families who need it most.
Many members have mentioned outstanding charities such as Tommy’s, Simba, the Baby Loss Retreat, Sands and Held In Our Hearts, to name but a few. Recently, I had the honour of meeting Nicola and Rossi in Edinburgh, and I was blown away by the kindness, compassion and support that they provide to families who have experienced loss. I watched a film in which families whom they had supported over many years spoke about their own stories and about what Held In Our Hearts had meant to them. It was incredibly moving—if any colleagues want to visit Held In Our Hearts to see the services that it provides, I would seriously recommend it.
However, the support that Held In Our Hearts provides to many families is not as widespread as we would all like it to be. If we want such organisations to expand their reach, they need Government support. It should not matter where you live—if you experience one of the most difficult losses imaginable, that support should be available to you. I hope that the minister can update members tonight on the work that is currently being undertaken to support organisations in this vitally important area.
I know that there is a review under way, but I would also like the minister to explain, if she can, why there is no framework for the minimum level of support that should be provided when a baby dies; why the hospital to home service has not been expanded; why health visitors do not routinely include families who have suffered a loss; and why there is no dedicated mental health support for families who have suffered the loss of a baby. I hope that the new session of Parliament brings plans and, crucially, as Miles Briggs said, clear timescales for the implementation of those plans.
I also highlight the need to increase the provision of overnight accommodation for families in neonatal units. I have had conversations with the minister about that, because, even at present, for every 10 babies who need neonatal care, there is only one bed available in a neonatal unit. Parents need that precious time with their babies, to participate in care and, should the worst happen, to create memories with their children, because those moments can never be replaced. Ensuring that hospitals have appropriate accommodation is about dignity and compassion, and we have all spoken with dignity and compassion this evening.
We need to treat parents as parents and babies as babies. If the worst should happen and a baby is lost, we cannot change that; Patricia Gibson made that absolutely clear. However, we can make sure that parents are supported and that we give them time with their baby. If the minister can announce that she will implement a framework and work with health boards to increase the number of neonatal unit beds for families, that would a good start in changing the support that is currently available to parents.
We can look at reviews, as they are helpful, but we also need the Government to look at which recommendations have already been implemented from previous reviews; what has perhaps been missed out; and what fixes could be put in place—as many of us have mentioned tonight—as we wait on the review that is currently under way to conclude and report. If there are quick fixes that everyone can get behind, we should absolutely implement those.
I will end on that point, because we are here to remember babies who have been lost and the families who have lost them, but we are also here to ensure that the supports that we give families in the future are supports that will hold strong and that we can all get behind as a Parliament.
In order to accommodate the final two speakers, I am minded to accept a motion without notice, under rule 8.14.3, to extend the debate by up to 30 minutes. I invite Patricia Gibson to move such a motion.
Motion moved,
That, under rule 8.14.3, the debate be extended by up to 30 minutes.—[Patricia Gibson]
Motion agreed to.
18:36
Like others, I am privileged to speak in tonight’s debate. I thank Patricia Gibson for bringing the debate to the chamber, and for the manner in which she did so. Her speech was probably the most moving speech that I have heard in this session. I wanted to put that on the record.
Like David Linden, I am not sure how much to share personally. I found myself agreeing with the sentiment of his speech a lot. As colleagues know, I have three children. However, before each of the children were born, my now wife and I experienced losses. Each experience was different in terms of the interactions with medical professionals, as well as the experience itself. However, what I will say is that, in my experience, and as most colleagues—I was going to say most women, but it is probably most colleagues—in the room will understand, mum carried most of the burden. I think that that is the case across the country and across the world. Women continue to carry the burden, the stigma and the shame that still exist, although we are getting much better.
The support that is there is limited and it is not fully focused on a mum’s needs. Meghan Gallacher and others touched on that. Baby loss can occur in various ways: for example, at a routine check-up or through an ectopic pregnancy. Various different types of support are needed, and we should be doing a lot better in that area. I wanted to make those remarks to start off.
Like others, I want to praise all the organisations that are involved. Today I met Joanne, who is from Airdrie, outside the Parliament. I think that she might be in the public gallery. I missed the photo call, but I met her as it was finishing and we had a wee chat. She works for Sands, which is a charity that does an absolutely fantastic job. I thank it for all that it does for parliamentarians in raising awareness of the issue, as well as for the work that it does across Scotland. I also want to thank Joanne. As I said, she is from Airdrie, which is nearly Coatbridge and Chryston; she is almost a constituent.
As Steven Bonnar and David Linden have already done, I also want to pay tribute to Baby Loss Retreat. I have known Julie and Bryan Morrison since about 2016, when they first contacted me. Like David, I consider them friends. The work that they have done through the charity has been absolutely phenomenal. The work that they do to keep Erin’s name out there is wonderful, whether through the retreat itself, Erin’s app, which has been mentioned, the men’s counselling, which Bryan runs, or the advocacy and policy change work in conjunction with Sands and others. It is just fantastic. I know that the minister is due to meet Baby Loss Retreat. The meeting was meant to happen today. However, because of other parliamentary business, it has been moved. We are looking forward to having that meeting. Julie and Bryan are my constituents. I hope that that alleviates David Linden’s concern: they will get to meet the minister soon.
Progress has been made, as members have talked about.
I feel sorry for the minister, because, obviously, we are all standing up on what is an emotionally charged subject and—rightly—asking for various things to be changed. However, given my experience of knowing the minister for 10 years—we were elected at the same time—I do not think that there is a better one for this, because Maree Todd cares deeply about women and children, and she is the right person to take the issue forward. I hope that she can take that away as well as all the asks that she has been given today.
Obviously, we are making progress. There has been the memorial book and certification, which was mentioned by David Linden. The point that he made about where people are domiciled was a good one. I had not been aware of it, and I hope that it can be taken up as well.
Memorial gardens are popping up in different council areas. For example, Julie and Bryan Morrison have done quite a lot of work in North Lanarkshire to make sure that memorial gardens come up in various cemeteries. Those are becoming more apparent now as we break down the stigma.
However, more must be done. I do not think it acceptable, in this day and age, as we hear all the time from constituents, that mothers and families who have lost a child are in the same ward or hall—or whatever people want to call it—in which children are being born. That is not the fault of any nursing staff or hospital. We could never blame it on them. It is just the way that the system is. However, surely we can fix that, because it just seems really cruel. It gets mentioned a lot. As I said, it is not the fault of any individual, and I hope that we can all come together to find a solution.
The theme of the week is, “Together, we care.” That has been shown in the Parliament tonight.
18:41
I am grateful to Patricia Gibson for the members’ debate tonight and for her motion marking baby loss awareness week 2026. I am truly humbled to speak in the debate. As we have heard from various members, the week comes under the theme, “Together, we care.” As Meghan Gallacher touched on, we are seeing the Parliament at its best tonight, because we do all care, and it is wonderful to experience the debate.
The reminder is simple but powerful: no one should face alone the devastation of pregnancy loss or baby loss. We have heard the numbers: 318 baby deaths in 2024, including 159 stillbirths. Research tells us that half of adults have been touched by the loss of a pregnancy or baby, either personally or through someone that they know. Behind every number is a family whose lives have been changed forever. Parents, grandparents, siblings and friends carry a grief that is too often silent and still too little understood. It is not an abstract issue. It is about quiet conversations in general practice surgeries, empty nursery rooms and anniversaries that are marked in private.
I have been humbled and privileged to work with the Scottish baby loss collaborative—Held In Our Hearts, Sands, Simba, Miscarriage UK, Antenatal Results & Choices Scotland, Baby Loss Retreat and the Lullaby Trust—which we hosted in the Parliament last year. I remember—and have heard about from Miles Briggs and Meghan Gallacher—Held in our Hearts. I was privileged to meet its representatives about four years ago. They had contacted me. I still remember that visit. It stays with me and will do so for the rest of my life. Both are here today, and I am humbled to have them as friends as well. Their message is clear and consistent: every family in Scotland deserves timely, compassionate, specialist support, wherever they live.
I have been humbled to meet families who have suffered baby loss. Tonight and this week, their experiences should be at the forefront of our thoughts. Just last year, we had a round table on the issue. I met a family—a mum and dad—who had lost their daughter at three years old. They left the hospital and their aftercare support was being given a leaflet. I remember how that felt to them. That stays with me. The mums and dads need our support.
Support across Scotland varies. The hospital to home model should be adopted across Scotland. I thank the minister for meeting Held In Our Hearts with me just last month. It was a fantastic visit. I agree with Fulton MacGregor that we could not ask for a more caring minister.
Another important point that Fulton MacGregor made was about dedicated spaces away from busy maternity wards. Consistent bereavement pathways are important. Psychological care should be available when it is needed, not just when baby loss happens but for the months and years after that. There should also be opportunities for families to acknowledge and remember their babies. Those are not optional extras but the basics of a caring society.
I pay tribute to the charities, the specialist midwives, the bereavement support workers and the countless volunteers who work alongside the families in their darkest hours.
This week is about awareness, but it must also be about action. Let us use this debate to reaffirm our collective commitment to listen better, to support better, and to ensure that no parent in Scotland feels isolated in their grief.
18:45
I am grateful for the opportunity to close this important debate.
I thank Patricia Gibson for bringing this motion before Parliament to mark baby loss awareness week. I absolutely agree that her contribution was powerful and moving, and I will respond to her specific asks in the course of my closing speech. I hope that the Presiding Officer will indulge me, as there have been a number of asks.
I also thank all the members who have contributed this afternoon, particularly those who have shared personal experiences of pregnancy or baby loss, or the experiences of their constituents. Those contributions help to break down the stigma, challenge the silence, and ensure that families who are affected by pregnancy and baby loss know that they are not alone.
Baby loss awareness week provides an important opportunity for reflection, remembrance and awareness. This year’s theme, Together, we care”, reminds us that supporting those affected by pregnancy and baby loss is a shared responsibility. It involves healthcare professionals, but it also involves employers, communities, charities and wider society.
Throughout the debate, members have highlighted the profound impact that pregnancy and baby loss have on families. Although every experience is different, the need for compassionate and person-centred care remains constant. Members have rightly highlighted the vital role that is played by charities and third sector organisations. Organisations such as Sands, Held In Our Hearts, Bliss, Tommy’s and many others provide practical and emotional support, advocate for change, and ensure that lived experience informs improvements in care. The Scottish Government recognises that contribution, and continues to fund organisations that provide bereavement support, counselling, peer support, neonatal family support, and support for implementation of the national bereavement care pathway across Scotland.
The national bereavement care pathway remains central to our approach. It was developed with bereaved parents, healthcare professionals and third sector organisations, and it sets out standards for care following miscarriage, stillbirth, neonatal death and other forms of pregnancy and baby loss. All NHS boards are signed up to the pathway and continue to progress implementation, and we continue to fund the baby loss charity, Sands, to support all 14 boards in that implementation. As I said, all 14 boards are officially signed up to the NBCP. They have all appointed a lead, and they are at different stages of implementation.
I had a wonderful visit to Held In Our Hearts recently with Paul McLennan. It was really powerful and humbling to hear directly from the people involved in that charity about the work that they do and the difference that they make. In addition to the £245,000 in funding that we already provide for the continued support of that project, we have been absolutely clear that we would consider further match funding where NHS boards commit to implementing the service in their areas. That would help to ensure that more bereaved families can access the support that they need. If one thing becomes simpler through the public service reform that we are progressing, I hope that it is that process. It is about ensuring that things happen once for Scotland, and that would be a great win for us.
Members have also spoken about miscarriage care. Scotland’s delivery framework for miscarriage care and national progesterone pathway are helping to deliver more consistent and compassionate care. We continue to support implementation across NHS boards, backed by £3 million of Scottish Government funding over the past two years.
David Linden, and others, mentioned the action that we have taken to recognise pregnancy loss before 24 weeks through Scotland’s memorial book and certificate, giving families an opportunity to acknowledge their baby and create a lasting record of their loss. I am ashamed to say that I was not aware of the issue that David raised. I am absolutely more than happy to commit to resolving that cross-border issue, and I will keep him updated on progress.
We know that support does not end when a family leaves hospital. Pregnancy and baby loss can affect mental wellbeing, relationships and family life for years afterwards. That is why ongoing support is so important. Families want assurance that we will continue to improve care for women and babies, and do everything that is possible to prevent baby loss. That includes acting on the best evidence available, ensuring that mothers and babies receive the right care at the right time, funding the Scottish patient safety programme’s work to reduce stillbirth and neonatal death, and participating in UK audits that identify opportunities to improve care.
When things go wrong, parents deserve compassionate support and clear answers. Healthcare Improvement Scotland’s maternity standards, which were published in March, include standard 11 on loss and bereavement, setting out the care that women should expect following pregnancy or baby loss. Since September, maternity units are being inspected against those standards. Healthcare Improvement Scotland is also reviewing its approach to adverse events to ensure that investigations remain robust and supportive for families.
Finally, I highlight the review of maternity services, which was raised by a number of members around the chamber, including Ms Gibson. The review began on 5 October 2026—just last Monday—and is chaired by Professor McCourt. Work and engagement with families and clinicians will be central as the review considers further improvement to maternity and neonatal services. On ensuring that the review extends to all health boards and learns from good practice, I can confirm that Professor McCourt has outlined that she will meet all health boards as part of her review. She will also do intensive week-long deep dives to visit a smaller number of health boards.
On taking account of the failings of the past, Professor McCourt absolutely appreciates how essential it is to listen to women and families throughout Scotland to ensure that their experiences are at the heart of the review. She has already begun meeting families who have contacted her.
I thank the minister for answering many of the concerns that have been raised by members this evening. I have not yet heard anything on neonatal beds. I understand that the minister is trying to address many issues in a short period, but I believe that there was meant to be an update on data issued in autumn 2026 on on-site accommodation and provisions for partners and siblings. Is that data coming soon, and can the minister share that with members who are interested?
On the specific point, as the member knows, all neonatal units in Scotland can provide overnight accommodation for families when needed, but we recognise that in some areas there is pressure on that accommodation. We need to respond to that. I am more than happy to pick up that issue with the member outside the chamber—I know that that issue is of long-standing interest to her. I expect us to work together to continue to deliver on that.
On the independence of reviews, as Ms Gibson said, we do not want boards marking their own homework. We have published the “Maternity and neonatal (perinatal) adverse event review process for Scotland”, which sets out clearly our expectations for the review of adverse events, including involving external panel members in reviews. All NHS boards are expected to follow that process in full in maternity and neonatal services, and we monitor that through ongoing activity with NHS boards. Additionally, the Scottish Government is undertaking work jointly with Healthcare Improvement Scotland and the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service’s Scottish fatalities investigation unit to improve the quality and timeliness of significant adverse event reviews in health boards.
On ensuring that standards and protocols are adhered to and, if not, accountability is pursued, we published our maternity standards in March this year. Those set out our expectations about standards of maternity care, including bereavement care. HIS is continuing inspections of maternity units; that will include, from now onwards, inspection of boards against the maternity standards. However, we recognise that there are multiple demands and pressures on our maternity services. That is why we have initiated the independent review, which will learn from past experiences and practice—both poor and positive—to make recommendations.
On Ms Gibson’s ask in relation to consistent data collection on adverse events, I absolutely agree that that is really important. Our perinatal adverse event guidance sets out when boards should carry out a perinatal significant adverse event review, and boards should consistently report all category 1 SAERs to Healthcare Improvement Scotland. This time last year, the former cabinet secretary wrote to every health board chief executive in Scotland to make clear his expectation that all boards work with Healthcare Improvement Scotland to improve the timeliness and quality of significant adverse event review investigations and reporting, and that they provide regular reporting to HIS in order to strengthen the oversight and scrutiny of such reviews.
Today’s debate has demonstrated the progress that has been made and the challenges that remain. The Scottish Government remains committed to improving care, reducing inequalities and ensuring that everyone affected by pregnancy or baby loss receives compassionate and person-centred support.
Every member who has spoken has made an important contribution, and I appreciate the minister’s remarks. I emphasise that, as I am sure she is aware, there are some difficulties with outcome rates among ethnic minority women, so it is important that firm measures in that regard are put in place in relation to any of our reviews and standards.
I absolutely agree. That is an important point, which will be covered by the independent maternity review. We have asked the chair to look specifically at outcomes for black and minority ethnic groups, including the indigenous Gypsy Traveller community, because we know that their outcomes are significantly worse than those for the rest of the population.
As we mark baby loss awareness week, we remember the babies whose lives were sadly cut short and recognise the pain that is carried by parents, siblings, grandparents and wider families, as we have heard during the debate. On 15 October, families around the world will participate in the wave of light, and the Scottish Government will once again illuminate its buildings as a symbol of remembrance and solidarity with bereaved families.
I close by thanking our NHS staff, our charities, our volunteers and campaigners and, most important, those with lived experience who continue to share their stories and drive change. Together, we care; together, we remember; and, together, we will continue to strive to ensure that no family experiences pregnancy or baby loss without the compassion, dignity and support that they deserve.
Meeting closed at 18:57.
Previous
Decision Time