East Kent NHS trust apologises after review of 11 stillbirths

The review examined the records of 11 babies stillborn at 35 weeks’ gestation or later between June 2025 and March 2026. External reviewers judged that shortcomings in care were likely to have made a difference to the outcome in four cases, and may have done so in another four. In two cases, they found care problems that they judged would not have changed the outcome; in one, they found no care issues. [2]

The reviewers identified recurring problems in the management of high-risk pregnancies, monitoring babies’ wellbeing, maternity triage and decisions about when to deliver. The trust’s response says ultrasound-related concerns arose in seven of the 11 cases. The reviewers also identified a failure to use professional interpreting for one woman who needed it, which they judged likely to have been an important factor in that case’s outcome. [2]

The trust says seven more babies were stillborn at term between April and August 2026 and that it has commissioned the same external team to review those cases. Findings from that work are pending. [2]

The findings follow a 2022 inquiry into earlier maternity and neonatal care in East Kent. That inquiry judged that care meeting national standards could have led to a different outcome in 45 of 65 baby-death cases it examined, including both stillbirths and deaths after birth. More recent Care Quality Commission assessments, published in May 2025, rated maternity safety at the trust’s two hospitals as requiring improvement, while also noting positive reporting and learning practices. [3] [4] [5]

Helen Gittos, whose daughter Harriett died after birth in 2014, told BBC News that families’ reaction to the new findings was a mixture of incredulity and rage. [1]