Losing a baby is one of the hardest things any parent can have to go through.
Miscarriage is common but nothing prepares you for the grief of when a pregnancy is lost.
Unfortunately some hospitals compound the agony of mothers at their most vulnerable.
Women are forced to have their treatment in the same labour suites where healthy babies are born.
Hearing the sound of a newborn after losing your own baby is an unimaginable agony.
This is why a commitment was made to provide separate units for bereaved parents in every Scots maternity hospital.
Units were to be introduced by the end of next year but campaigners fear this target will not be met.
Louise Caldwell bravely told the Record her story before the Holyrood election.
She and her husband Craig discovered at the 12-week-scan that their baby had died and the child needed to be delivered the following day.
They thought they would be taken to a special ward for delivery but instead were taken to a regular labour suite.
Louise recalled: “I walked down the corridor clutching a little memory box. It felt like the longest corridor in the world.
“I stared at the floor the whole way to try to avoid seeing the congratulations balloons, the baby cardigans, the thank-you cards for the midwives.”
Louise’s heartbreaking case must be a catalyst for ensuring the target on specialist units is met without delay.
Sex pest failings
The SNP’s handling of the scandal involving sex pest MP Patrick Grady has been appalling.
The Westminster group issued him with a cursory suspension and MPs barely criticised him.
This is despite Grady being found guilty of making unwanted sexual advances towards a 19-year-old.
Even worse was the lack of empathy for the victim, who says only one of 45 MPs has reached out to him.
Now a leaked recording shows that SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford asked his colleagues to give Grady their “absolute” full support.
And the SNP is seemingly more interested in hunting down the leaker than dealing with the problems at the root of the scandal. The Commons branch urgently needs to review its handling of this terrible saga.
The first thing would be to issue a statement praising the bravery of the young man who came forward.
Then they must clearly show what steps have been taken to ensure nothing like this can happen again.
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