A London hospital has launched an investigation after a woman whose baby died in the womb had to deliver her son at home due to a lack of beds, and keep his remains in her fridge when A&E staff said they could not store them safely.
Laura Brody and her partner, Lawrence White, both 39, were “tipped into hell” after being sent home by University hospital Lewisham and told to wait seven days for a delivery bed when it was discovered their baby no longer had a heartbeat.
Brody, who had already experienced a previous early miscarriage, said she was “explicitly” and consistently told by hospital staff there was no chance of her delivering her baby at home without medical supervision.
But hours later Brody, who was four months into her pregnancy and in intense pain, delivered her baby son in the toilet at home.
The couple, who wanted investigative tests to be carried out because of the previous miscarriage, dialled 999 but were told it was not an emergency. Instead they were forced to wrap their baby’s remains in a wet cloth and place him in a plastic container. They went to A&E where they were told to wait in the hot and stuffy general waiting room with about 20 or 30 other people.
When they asked if their baby’s remains could be taken to the mortuary, they were told they did not have the correct paperwork, said Brody, who works for an events company.
Eventually, wanting to preserve their baby’s remains as best they could for a postmortem, they decided they had no option but for White, a journalist, to take them home and store them in their own fridge while Brody was admitted for surgery to remove the placenta.
Describing their experience as “grotesque”, Brody told the Guardian: “No one would want their baby’s remains to end up in a Tupperware box. It was just shoved on to the side, and completely ignored by staff, and treated like it was trash.”
It was late at night, she said. “They said we didn’t have the paperwork for the remains to be taken to the mortuary. Which we found extraordinary, because it was ridiculous to expect someone who had just given birth at home to suddenly conjure up paperwork,” she added.
When someone suggested perhaps putting the remains in a “staff fridge”, she said: “We didn’t know what that meant; if that was a fridge where everyone stores things. Given it was an unlabelled box, there was such a high chance it would be misplaced, the shifts would change, and we just had no confidence that it would make its way to the mortuary. And we didn’t want the baby’s remains to get lost, which we thought there was a very very real risk of happening.”
White took his son’s remains home in a taxi and cleared space in their fridge, telling the BBC, who first reported on the case, that it was “a lonely, surreal moment clearing space in my fridge.”
Speaking two months since the day she gave birth, Brody said she was speaking out after seeing a BBC documentary about global miscarriage. “I wanted people to know these experiences are happening in London, in 2022 – not just people in very distant parts of the world.”
She said had she not been assured repeatedly by hospital staff that she would not deliver at home, she would have been better prepared. “If I had been prepared that it could happen, that it was likely to happen in the bathroom, that an ambulance won’t come, that you will be low priority and that it could take five hours, then I would have been mentally prepared. It would have been horrible, but then I would have known what to do,” she said.
“There shouldn’t be a second family who has to take their baby’s remains home. I just thought this is such an extreme situation to have happened, and I just want a line to be drawn and no one else to have to go through this,” she said.
She said her experience illustrated flaws in the health system in dealing with late miscarriages, and the many obstacles women faced when in that position.
The case has raised wider concerns among campaigners who argue that miscarriage care needs to be properly prioritised within hospitals including A&E.
In a statement to the BBC, Lewisham and Greenwich NHS trust said: “We are deeply sorry and offer our sincerest condolences to Ms Brody and her partner for the tragic loss of their baby and these traumatic experiences.
“A full investigation is under way to understand where failings in care may have occurred so that any necessary changes and improvements can be made.”
The minister for women’s health, Maria Caulfield, said: “Every loss of a child is a tragedy, and my deepest sympathies are with Ms Brody and her family.
“Later this year, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists will publish new guidelines which will support NHS trusts to deliver more personalised miscarriage care, helping women through every step of their journey, including treatment options and management of future pregnancies.”
The experiences of miscarriage around the world are explored in a BBC documentary, Miscarriage: The Search for Answers.
