Heartbroken mother recounts the moment a doctor told her ‘your baby is dead’ after she was made to stay home and endure ‘agonising’ labour for six days

A mother has opened up about a series of NHS failures that led to the loss of her unborn baby.

Sarah Hawkins was told to stay at home for six days while she labored in agony, but her daughter Harriet was born stillborn.

In new ITV1 documentary Maternity: Broken Trust, she told of her heartbreak in 2016 when she and her then husband Jack suddenly realized she was in labor at home and rushed to hospital, where they were told that little Harriet was already was dead.

The former couple are just one of many parents whose babies reportedly died in the care of the Nottingham University Trust Trust, and who have now launched a campaign for justice.

Looking back, Sarah said her numerous calls for help were ignored.

“It’s been almost eight years since Harriet died and I remember every second of it, it feels like it was yesterday,” she said in the new documentary.

‘I have made thirteen contacts with the hospital. They just didn’t listen to me when I asked for help.”

Although Sarah’s memory of the incident almost a decade ago is as sharp as ever, especially of the painful contractions she endured.

She said they lasted six days and despite everything, NUH staff told her to stay home.

On day six, she and Andrew knew their baby was on the way and decided it was time to go to the hospital. But when they arrived, they were confronted with a tragedy that would destroy their lives forever.

“They called for the doctor,” Sarah remembers. ‘And then the doctor scanned and said, “I’m sorry, your baby is dead.”

‘I think I just wanted to die. Yeah, you know, I asked for help.”

Sarah recounts the horrific ordeal through conversations with her ex-husband – with whom she shares second daughter Lottie, four, – and voiceovers, both for ITV. At this point the mother is visibly on the verge of tears.

She later explained how difficult it was to let go of her unborn child after already imagining their life together.

She said: ‘I think I convinced myself it was a boy… I quite liked Arthur.

‘I remember when we saw her I thought, “Oh, she definitely looks like a little Harriet”. Harriet Ella Rene Hawkins. She was perfect, wasn’t she?”

The tumultuous event would have a drastic effect on their lives, leading to the loss of their jobs as senior doctors at the trust, and the end of their marriage.

Jack told how minor disagreements after baby Harriet’s death turned into “divorce material.”

“It just showed how different we are, which I suspect is what everyone would be like if their child died,” Jack said.

“You think you’re alike, but wait until you have to deal with this, and then taking the cap off the toothpaste tube becomes divorce material, because it’s an awful lot for people to put through.

“And you know, I hold individuals responsible for my daughter’s death, my mental health, my marriage. In order to heal we need justice.

“I want to see people brought to justice for the death of my daughter and so many other babies and mothers.”

The program takes a look at the Hawkins Campaign for Responsibility, in which hundreds of families have since participated.

Their campaigns helped pressure the NHS to set up an independent inquiry, which has now been extended to more than 1,800 families – with a Nottinghamshire Police investigation also announced.

The documentary Maternity: Broken Trust examines failures in maternity care at the trust, which is currently the subject of the largest review of its kind ever conducted in Britain.

Between 2012 and 2023, 467 mothers and babies died while in the care of NUH, a figure that does not include stillbirths.

One of the stories told in the documentary is that of Jack and Sarah Hawkins, who first exposed their failure to provide appropriate maternity care after their daughter Harriet was stillborn in 2016.

During the Hawkins campaign, they discovered that hundreds of other families in the Nottingham area had suffered similar traumatic experiences while in the trust’s maternity care.

Natalie Needham revealed her son Kouper died overnight, despite raising concerns with staff that he had never moved, opened his eyes or eaten.

She recalled: ‘All I was told by the midwives was that he was my fifth child, and I needed to know how to wake a baby, feed him and how to do that. He died at a quarter past two in the morning while we were sleeping.”

Natalie and her husband were later arrested on suspicion of Kouper’s murder, although they were later released without charge.

A subsequent inquest found that Kouper died of natural causes, which Natalie disputes.

Ladybird’s mother, Carly, was shocked when the messy test results led to an unnecessary abortion and the loss of their precious unborn child.

‘We were told she would probably not survive the birth. We decided to terminate the pregnancy because we didn’t want our daughter to suffer,” Carly said.

‘We found that the test results were completely clear. You can’t imagine that feeling. The consultant said you could have had a miscarriage anyway.’

NUH NHS Trust was fined £800,000 after being criminally prosecuted for the death of Wynter Andrews, who died in the arms of her mother Sarah.

Sarah recalled, “After Wynter died, we were in the funeral home when the coroner called us and the coroner said, ‘I looked at your notes from when you came in on Sunday,’ and I said, ‘I did.’ I didn’t come on Sunday, I came on Saturday.”

‘It was then that the coroner realized that the trust had not sent all the correct documents. Later we discovered at inquest that they had actually ticked the box that Wynter’s death was an expected death.

‘Wynter was a perfectly healthy baby, there was no reason for her death. The coroner ruled that she died as a result of trust neglect.”

Maternity: Broken Trust also provides access to the review’s lead, senior midwife Donna Ockenden. Donna expects her review to take at least eighteen months.

In a statement to the programme, Anthony May, CEO of Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUH), apologized to the women and families for their ‘pain and suffering’.

He said: “I know we have failed too many women and their families, and I recognize the pain and suffering they continue to experience as a result. I’m really sorry for that.

‘We still have further to go, but the latest Care Quality Commission (CQC) report, published in September 2023, reflects the progress we are making, with an improved rating for our maternity care.

‘The report underlines the improvements we are making in the way we listen to women and families, and highlights key improvements in areas such as triage, staffing and training, which are down to the hard work and determination of our colleagues.’

Motherhood: Broken Trust, airs on ITV1 and ITVX at 10.15pm tonight (Sunday 9 June).