Debate contribution: Baby Loss Certificate Scheme and Pathology Service

Debate contribution by Mr Robbie Butler on 15 April 2024.

MLA

Mr Robbie Butler

Party at the time

Ulster Unionist Party

Date

15 April 2024

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Baby Loss Certificate Scheme and Pathology Service

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4483146

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I feel wholly inadequate following the Member for Strangford. Through you, Mr Speaker, Kellie, thank you so much for sharing such a personal testimony. I am going to read from a script, but many Members will know that I am passionate about the rights of children and young people, and that extends right to pre-birth protections and how we recognise and value every single life. There may or not be a speech today that reaches into our hearts as much as Kellie's has done. Members, although the amendment is OK and, to some, may add some value, I ask that the House do not divide. Regardless of the benefits of the amendment and the motion, both have value. We can therefore do better than to divide when we come to the vote. Again, thank you, Kellie. There are few topics on which we share our experiences and talk about in the Chamber that will bring up such emotion and evoke such passion in all of us. The loss of a child at any age can be one of the most devastating things that can happen to a family. I think of my own granny on my mum's side, who had 16 children, 11 of whom survived, while five did not. She dearly would have loved to have had something in place to have them recognised in the manner that we are talking about today. My heart goes out to each and every woman, man and family who has been affected in this manner. That is why I very much welcome the recent introduction of the pre-24-week baby loss certificate in England. As we know, that was introduced there following a recommendation by the independent pregnancy loss review, which was commissioned by our Westminster Government. Pregnancy loss is no different there than it is here, so it is only sensible that the relevant Departments here engage with their counterparts in England with a view to assessing and, hopefully, improving on what could be implemented here in Northern Ireland. On that topic, I welcome the early clarity from the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Health locally that their officials are working collaboratively on the issue. As has been said about paediatric pathology, I am sure that we were all equally as concerned when the announcement was made in 2018 that post-mortem examinations of babies and children from Northern Ireland would be moved to Liverpool. As I said, the loss of a child is absolutely devastating, and, although few things could possibly be worse, what compounds the situation locally is the subsequent realisation for parents that their little one has to be flown to England for the necessary examination. At that moment, the last thing that parents will want to do is get on a flight, perhaps leaving behind a wider family support network. To do that can compound their grief, and, frankly, it is a cruel position to ask any grieving parent to put themselves in, but that is exactly what is happening here at the moment. While I would really love Northern Ireland to have a stand-alone paediatric or perinatal pathology service, we need to remember why the service was lost in the first place. It was not because it had been determined that that was the right thing to do; it was because of the size and scale of Northern Ireland. Our, thankfully, low numbers of babies and children who pass away — not to take away from the pain that each of those deaths will have caused — meant that it was a difficult service in which to retain a sufficient level of staffing. Following the resignation of the sole paediatric pathologist at the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust, significant efforts were made to retain the service in Northern Ireland, including, I believe, repeated recruitment drives nationally and internationally. Ultimately, those attempts were unsuccessful and resulted in the service being provided from Liverpool. While, as I stated, I hope that the House does not divide at any point on the motion, I say to the proposer of the amendment that my party would prefer to see a cross-border dimension to the service rather than what we have at the moment and the status quo. As difficult as it may be to support families wherever they travel — to Dublin or to Liverpool — it is bound to be easier for them not to have to get on a plane to travel. I recognise, however, that, even with the feasibility of an all-island approach, which we have discussed, such a service would still take time to establish, especially due to the time required for new trainees to acquire specialism in the area. It would also be my preferred outcome that we proactively and pragmatically seek the reinstatement of the stand-alone Northern Ireland service. The current situation in which parents have to choose between flying to England and letting the remains of a little one travel alone is cruel. Whilst it was rolled out a number of years ago, we now have the momentum between us, with this brave motion, to address that. I hope that the debate will focus minds and act as a driver to address the position that many families, sadly, find themselves in.

879 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not qualifying

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 10:00 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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