Bid To Stop Materny Ward Agony Of Miscarriage Mums

Jan 27 2008 Exclusive by Mark Aitken, Political Editor

HEALTH chiefs are being urged to stop sending women into maternity wards after miscarriages.

Protesters say the women have their grief compounded by being surrounded by new mums and the cries of their babies in hospitals.

And Scottish Tory deputy leader Murdo Fraser urged yesterday that they should be kept in separate wards.

He raised the issue with health ministers after being contacted by a constituent. He said: "It is difficult to imagine anything more distressing for a woman who has had a miscarriage or a stillbirth than to be put in a maternity ward."

Cheryl Marwick, 32, of Elrick, Aberdeenshire, who has had seven miscarriages, praised staff's treatment of her yesterday.

But she added: "Even walking through the doors of a maternity hospital is terrible when you know you may be losing your baby."

Sue Hale, of the Stillbirth And Neonatal Death Society, said: "We recommend a woman be given private facilities after a baby dies.

"Having your baby die and being returned to a ward where other babies are crying and being fed would be very difficult."

Public health minister Shona Robison says women with early pregnancy complications should be cared for in a dedicated separate area.