Our daughter Willow Grace Smith was born on May 4th 2016, she died during labour.

I hadn’t felt well a few weeks before her birth & my community midwife had sent me in on the day of the
Doctors strike as I’d had a 4 week growth spurt & high blood pressure & protein showing in my water.

Unfortunately as the consultant was extremely busy he didn’t give me the time I should have had for an appointment & didn’t take
mine or the midwives concerns seriously, he never even examined me. The week after I saw a registrar who struggled to find Willow’s
heartbeat & she said she was erratic & all over the place, again my concerns were brushed aside. I wasn’t offered a scan
or a trace which would have indicated that Willow Grace was in distress. That night willow was moving constantly & I felt
her moving all day, I went in to labour later that afternoon.

The labour ward said to hold off coming in as they had too many poorly ladies & hadn’t the staff to cope.
By the time we got there at 7pm we weren’t seen until 7.30pm, by then it was too late & willow had passed away.

I was also mixed up with another patient during telephone conversations.

You always hear stories of reduced movement & how dangerous it can be, no one ever told me that excessive movement
could be dangerous too. Everyday we have to live without one of our children, Willow’s death was avoidable and we believe
that no pregnancy should go over 40 weeks. My placenta had aged & it developed blood clots, had I been induced
when I asked Willow Grace would still be here.

The only good thing to come from this is the charity we’ve set up in her name to raise money & awareness for sands