Morecambe Bay, Shrewsbury, Telford and East Kent.

Those are the names of hospital trusts where the failures in maternity care have been exposed. And now, sadly, there’s one more – Nottingham University Trust.

A joint investigation by Channel 4 News and Shaun Lintern at The Independent exposed a maternity service accused of bad care and neglect after dozens of babies were left with brain damage or tragically died. They found from 2010 to 2020, at least 46 babies have suffered brain damage and 19 have been stillborn at Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) NHS trust maternity units.

But this story of poor care of mothers and babies, one of repeated failures to investigate deaths of babies in maternity units, is one we’ve heard many times before.

So why do we keep getting it wrong?

Is there something fundamentally wrong with the way babies are born in this country?

Sources: BBC News, ITV News, 5 News