The scandal of stillbirths

I agree that the law would need to be changed re Rheinberg's suggestion and no, I don't know if anyone has. There's another scandal in Cumbria just at the moment so I expect that will take precedence.

No use lobbying my own MP - he's some useless Tory twerp.

Anya If I'm thinking of the same midwifery scandal in Cumbria as you, it was more than sloppiness.
It was professional jealousy, with midwives refusing to refer to obstetricians when necessary and totally losing sight of the fact that like all HCWs, they should always act in the patient's best interests.
And that's nothing to do with politics.

I agree absolutely Jane about that one, but I was thinking of little Poppi

Thatbags re your post 17.40 . Out of interest have you read/viewed the available material I have mentioned in past posts?, I am asking you personally as I hope I am correct in thinking you will not be offended by nor take my question as being sarcastic, you usually seem far to magnaminous a soul to find my question as such. (fingers crossed emoticon)

Look up following MP's

Chris Heaton - Harris
Tim Loughton
Tracy Crouch.

I have no desire to get into a spat with anyone but it appears that mention of the fact parliament and MP's are giving this matter attention is not being acknowledged and this particular subject is very dear to my heart.

Do we know exactly what Iceland is doing that is not being done here?

Fewer people therefore less demand on services? Lower birth rates? Wealthier better education for young women? In recent years we have had a high influx of immigrant families. Many have been settled in Middlesbrough . Interesting to know if that has skewed the rate of still births- traumatised women with little healthcare or knowledge of antenatal care?

That's a good point Stansgran. Would be interesting to see breakdown of the figures.

My thoughts have run along a similar line, stansgran, wondering if the rate is higher where there is a higher rate of newish immigrants. My experience with the Vietnamese 'boat' woman that I spoke of earlier on this thread is one of the reasons this thought has crossed my mind, I'm sure.

pogs, I checked out the Sands charity website. That looks like a worthy endeavour. I also looked up the three MPs whose names you gave. Can't say I learned anything significant about this thread's subject matter from the Wiki articles about them. It would really help if you could do links. Are you able to highlight and copy a web page's URL (it stands for Universal Resource Locator but you don't need to know that; I didn't till I asked DH just now!)? It is the internet 'address', if you like, of the page you're on. Try going to the top of your page now and click on the bit where it says gransnet.com. It should expand to show the whole address of the page. That's the first step.

Pogs, check out this Wikihow page that shows you how to copy and paste links.

Stansgran You make some interesting points, could I add the following.

The incidence of twins, triplets, quads and more has been steadily increasing in the UK and there are more stillbirths associated with these pregnancies. 1984 the total number of multiples was 7,353 and in 2012 it was 25,581.

Gosh! Is that because of fertility treatment, sadie? And if so, is the UK rate of twins and triplets, etc. also higher than in similar European countries?

Yes assisted conception increases the rate as does the age of the mother, with women over 35 more likely to have a multiple.

I can't give you any global figures but I guess which country you live in will determine whether infertility treatment is readily available.

Another thing that's occurred to me is stillbirth reporting. Whilst are figures in the UK are high, I would expect our reporting to be better than in some countries.

*our