The mothers of stillborn children in Liverpool were left in the dark for decades as their children were buried in mass graves due to outdated medical theories pushed by medical institutions that believed a separation of the mother and deceased child would be the most beneficial way to encourage them to move on.
The Liverpool City Council have asked the government to issue a formal apology and help retrieve birth records to ensure that the mothers of stillborn children can find where their late babies are buried. A promise of a meeting was made by Secretary of State Wes Streeting but, since the exit of Keir Starmer and a new appointment of Secretary of State, no such meeting has occurred. The Department of Health and Social Care has noted that these practices were ‘appalling’, as per the BBC, but there still is still no word from the Secretary of State on a meeting with campaigners.
The practice was ended in 1992 after the Still-Birth Definition Act was ratified into law which brought the medical and legal definition of a stillborn from 28 weeks to 24. The practice of quick, un-consensual burials and cremations of stillborn babies ended. Nevertheless, mothers were never told where their children were buried. In the Wirral, there are over 1,000 stillborn children buried in mass graves. Most of the bodies of the stillborn children are at Landican Cemetery in Woodchurch. Over the course of 46 years, from 1935 to 1981, mothers were not told where they were buried, or that they had even been buried at all. The leading theory was that if they did not see the baby, they would be quicker to try again and move on. However, many mothers remain clueless as to where their children’s remains are. By doing this, the NHS robbed parents of their dignity for years, and de-humanised stillborn children. The uk/local/wirral-council/">Wirral Council, recognising this, began the process of digitising their burial records last September so that parents may be able to find the resting place of their children.
Yet, a formal apology has not happened. As mentioned earlier, amidst the whirlwind political situation surrounding Keir Starmer’s Premiership and the fallout of his Cabinet, a meeting between the Home Secretary and the campaigners has ceased to materialise. Current Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has not met with, nor made comment, about whether these meetings will happen. Such an apology has been requested for years, since Margaret Greenwood MP asked then-PM Rishi Sunak whether he would make a formal apology. He did praise Gina Jacobs, but an apology wasn’t issued. The Department of Health and Social Care have not yet made their findings public, but Gina Jacobs’ group ‘Gina’s Sleeping Babies Reunited’ continues to help mothers find the plots where their stillborn children were buried.
