East Kent Stillbirth Review Highlights Ongoing Concerns Around Maternity Care

An independent review into maternity care at East Kent Hospitals NHS Trust found that eight babies may have survived with better maternity care, identifying failings in the management of high-risk pregnancies, maternity triage, fetal monitoring and communication. You can read more here.

The findings are particularly concerning as they come just a few years after the Kirkup Review highlighted serious maternity failings at the Trust.

While not every stillbirth is caused by negligence, a claim may arise where poor medical care contributed to the loss of a baby.

What Has Happened?

The independent review examined 11 stillbirths that occurred between June 2025 and March 2026 at East Kent Hospitals NHS Trust. The review found that in four cases, deficiencies in care were likely to have affected the outcome, while in a further four cases, care issues may have contributed to the babies’ deaths.

The review identified a number of recurring concerns, including:

• Failures in the management of high-risk pregnancies
• Inadequate foetal monitoring and surveillance
• Problems within maternity triage services
• Failures to identify concerns regarding foetal growth
• Inadequate escalation of patient concerns
• Poor organisational learning
• Insufficient use of interpreter services for families who required language support

The Trust’s Acting Chief Executive, Dr Des Holden, publicly apologised to the families affected, acknowledging that the organisation had “failed families” and expressing regret for the devastating outcomes experienced by those involved.

The Wider Impact on Families

The loss of a baby at any stage of pregnancy is an unimaginable tragedy. For many parents, learning that mistakes may have contributed to that loss can add an additional layer of grief, anger and frustration.

When concerns are raised about maternity care, families are often left searching for answers about:

• Whether warning signs were missed
• Whether concerns raised during pregnancy were acted upon appropriately
• Whether foetal monitoring was performed correctly
• Whether earlier intervention could have altered the outcome
• Whether lessons have been learned to prevent similar incidents occurring in the future

Independent investigations and reviews play an important role in helping families understand what happened and identifying any opportunities for improvement in patient safety.

Could This Amount to Clinical Negligence?

Where healthcare providers fail to provide treatment that meets an acceptable standard and that failure causes avoidable harm, there may be grounds for a clinical negligence claim.

In cases involving stillbirth, claims can commonly relate to:

• Failures to monitor a baby’s wellbeing during pregnancy
• Delays in recognising reduced foetal movements
• Failures to appropriately manage high-risk pregnancies
• Delays in treatment or delivery
• Communication failures between healthcare professionals
• Inadequate risk assessments
• Failures to respond to concerns raised by parents

Each case is unique and requires a detailed review of the medical records and expert evidence before conclusions can be reached.