In August 2020, already suspecting something wasn't right, Laura Santiago went into hospital for a scan to find out if the baby she was carrying was okay. Her baby wasn't and she was told the baby wouldn't survive and she would miscarry. After being given the news Laura was told she could have some time in a side room to take the news in. But she did all that alone as Covid rules meant her husband was sat waiting in their car in the car park. Laura then had to leave the hospital and go tell her husband the devastating news.
That was traumatic enough for anyone to endure but since then she has miscarried twice more, and needed four NHS scans, and at none of those was her husband allowed with her due to rules in her health board area. Each of those scans have been offered to her early as a result of a referral because a complication was suspected. After each Laura has had to take that lonely walk by herself out of the hospital to break the news to him.
For Laura, now 37, the part she says she is most bitter and angry about is that at her most recent scan – after falling pregnant again and where she was given good news – her husband also wasn't allowed to be with her to share what they hope is the start of an exciting and not traumatising journey.
