Hartlepool MP Jill Mortimer has spoken about losing her first baby during a debate on maternity care

The Conservative Parliamentarian used a Westminster Hall debate to urge ministers to invest in more midwifery.

She said this would ensure the best care possible for expectant mothers, as she shared her experiences during a debate on baby loss.

But she concluded that, 25 years since her own first experience of maternity care, the service has “not got any better”.

She told the event: “I lost my first baby in the very early weeks of pregnancy, and I was told by a very kindly midwife that sometimes you have to lose a baby to ripen the womb – this made me feel dreadful.

“I fought very hard not to grieve openly for that loss because I felt guilty that I should not.”

The MP spoke about being “left for long periods without being checked” during her pregnancy and how she nearly died after an emergency forceps delivery.

It was only during her third pregnancy that she said she “experienced continuity of care, which was wonderful”.

But becoming visibly upset, she added that she looked back at her daughter’s birth with “mixed emotions”.

She told MPs: “There should have been two of them. Very early in that pregnancy I again started to bleed.

“I bled with my first son and ended up spending a week in hospital, with people saying to me, ‘Don’t worry, it’s very early on, you’ll have another baby’.

“I did not know how to feel or how to grieve, while having to put all my efforts into sustaining my pregnancy, fearful every day that I would lose the baby I still carried. I was lucky that my beautiful daughter was born safe and healthy, but that loss never goes away.”

She added: “Sadly, experiences 25 years on from mine have not got any better.

“Baby loss still happens all too often. We simply need more midwives so that they can feel confident that they are providing the very best care they can to all mothers.”

She claimed “maternity staff are still exhausted” from Covid, urged the Government to prevent the “vicious cycle” of midwives leaving the profession and urged ministers to address “the shortfall of 2,000 midwives and 500 consultant gynecologists and obstetricians”.

Conservative former minister Guy Opperman also told MPs about the experience of losing his newborn twins, Teddy and Rafe, and called for “consistency across the NHS” to prevent a postcode lottery.

He added: “We all have to accept that mistakes are made and that giving birth is a fragile process, but we should expect the NHS and our Government to promote consistency of approach in dealing with the individual issues that mums and dads have.”

Shadow health minister Feryal Clark said the Government needed to take action on the NHS workforce.

Health minister Dr Caroline Johnson told MPs the Government was committed to improving maternity safety and examining an apparent rise in stillbirths during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Dr Johnson said the Government had invested £127 million “in bolstering the maternity workforce”, on top of £95 million for 1,200 new midwifery and 100 consultant obstetrician posts.