Foxcroft: Why I spoke about the loss of my daughter

Last week, during Baby Loss Awareness Week, Brockley MP Vicky Foxcroft delivered a moving speech in the Commons, talking about the loss of her own daughter, Veronica.

Now, in an article for The Guardian, Vicky has written about the motivation for her speech. She says:

"In contemplating [my] decision, I struggled with whether I was able to do this and what I could achieve by sharing my personal experience of how I lost my little girl, Veronica, at five days old. I knew that this was an opportunity for those also affected by similar losses to commemorate their babies, and to raise awareness of how many babies’ lives are lost. In 2014, there were 3,254 stillbirths and 2,689 infants’ deaths in England and Wales. For a country as well developed as ours these numbers are shocking...

"Teenage mothers have three times the rate of postnatal depression and a higher risk of poor mental health for three years after the birth. In my constituency, Lewisham Deptford, bereavement counselling has a waiting list of up to four months. This isn’t good enough."

You can read the full article here.