All Stories
Shauna
Shauna* (37) lives in the South East of England. Her relationship with Micah’s father broke down during her pregnancy. Micah is her second child. Shauna’s eldest son was seven years old when Micah was stillborn at 37 weeks and five days on July 24th 2015.
*Because she works in maternity care, Shauna is a pseudonym.
Amma, consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist
Amma is a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist. She qualified in 1986 and her professional area of interest is maternal medical complications in pregnancy. Based in London, she has two children.
Jane, bereavement midwife
Jane has been a midwife for 17 years. For the last 14 years she has worked as a specialist bereavement midwife in an inner city, London hospital. She has two children.
Katy, community midwife
Katy has been a midwife in the North of England for 10 years. For the last seven years she has worked as a community midwife in a diverse, multicultural, urban community. At the time of interview she was 27 weeks pregnant with her first child.
Eileen, junior registrar
Eileen is a junior registrar in obstetrics and gynaecology. She’d been a junior registrar for about 18 months at the time of interview. Her training has included placements in a number of busy inner city, London hospitals.
Shazia and Omar
Shazia (36) and Omar (37) live in Surrey. Their first child Mohammed was stillborn in May 2010 at 27 weeks gestation. 18 months later their second child, a daughter named Zara, was born. Since then they have gone on to have two more daughters: Haya born in 2014 and Sila in 2016.
Jess
Jess (29) lives in Oxfordshire with her wife, Nat (29). The couple met at school and married in 2014. Their first child, Leo Phoenix, who was conceived through IVF, was stillborn on 17th January 2016 at 37 weeks and 4 days of pregnancy. At the time of interview Jess was in the first trimester of her subsequent pregnancy.
Jeeger and Disha
Jeeger (29) and Disha (30) met in Jamnagar, India in 2010. They married in 2011 and Disha became pregnant in September 2015. At the anomaly scan at 21 weeks the couple were told of a problem with the blood flow to their baby, which meant that he was small for gestational age. Aditya was stillborn in February 2016 at 24 weeks and six days.
Marjorie and Alex
Alex (78) and Marjorie (76) live in Greater Manchester and met through work in 1960. Their first child Alexis was stillborn in 1963. They went on to have three more children: Jane in 1965, Jill 1969, and Amy in 1979.
Rabia and David
Rabia (31) and David (35) met at a Muslim Arts Convention in London. They married in 2008. Six years later they were expecting their first child. The pregnancy was ‘perfectly normal’ and they planned a home birth. After a long labour Rabia noticed meconium in her waters so they went to hospital. Jannah was stillborn on the 17th March at 41 weeks of pregnancy.