The CESDI report says that though most of the stillbirths are classified as "unexplained" events, they are often thought of as "unavoidable". But the report found that 45 per cent of these mothers had received moderately or majorly sub-optimal care.Many mothers are left with the burning question of "Why did it happen to me?" and the inability of the medical profession to give a clear reason for the cause of death only adds to their suffering. Very little is known about the causes of stillbirth, but approximately one in 100 babies are stillborn - defined as death after 24 weeks.The sixth annual report of the Confidential Enquiry into Stillbirths and Deaths in Infancy (CESDI), published last year, showed that in 1996-97 there were more than 7,000 mothers who had a stillbirth Only 11 per cent of their babies died during labour. "The first thing they say to you is, 'Your baby is dead', the second thing they say is, 'You have to have a normal delivery'," she says "You just go through it. I don't know how, but you do."Mrs Good was induced and, after a short labour, gave birth to her daughter. "I was so scared that she might have decomposed, and frightened that she would be badly deformed that I was terrified of seeing her But she was perfect.
I held her for a while but my husband, James, says he couldn't because if he did he would never want to let her go."Charlotte weighed 6.5lbs; a post-mortem failed to establish the cause of death. She joined the 80 per cent of stillbirths in Britain that are "unexplainable". "I screamed, 'I've killed my baby, I've killed my baby'," she recalls "I don't think I knew how to react I was in total shock My husband just clung to me saying nothing. He was absolutely devastated." Mrs Good, a management consultant from Hampshire, had a normal pregnancy but it ended with the midwife unable to find her baby's heartbeat Charlotte had died in her mother's womb.
At a routine check-up for her baby at 36 weeks, she went to the hospital for a scan. Minutes later, she was wheeled in semi-hysteria into an emergency room. "The important thing is we are now able to get into the NHS really big real-terms rises Why? Because we have run the economy effectively. I make no apologies whatever in allowing people to keep more of their income tax.". Thirty-nine-year-old Caroline Good had one daughter, Harriet, and was looking forward to the birth of her second child, Charlotte. At a routine check-up for her baby at 36 weeks, she went to the hospital for a scan. Minutes later, she was wheeled in semi-hysteria into an emergency room.
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