NHS Trust Settles Claim Over Stillbirth at Luton Hospital and Agrees Earlier Caesarean Would Likely Have Saved Baby

Lauryn McCready arrived at the maternity ward of Luton and Dunstable Hospital at around 22:00 on 4 September 2023, more than a week overdue with contractions that had begun 48 hours earlier. " The department was extremely busy that evening, Lauryn McCready recalled.

The couple from Luton, who had experienced several miscarriages before this pregnancy, entered the hospital with what Lauryn McCready described as a "naive trust" that she was in safe hands.

Lauryn McCready, a primary school teacher, and her husband Andrew McCready, a carpenter, spent 28 hours in the maternity triage unit. During that time she underwent eight vaginal examinations as labour failed to progress. Staff detected the baby's heart rate dropping at just after 02:00 on 6 September 2023.

Lauryn McCready's waters broke during a cervical examination at that same time. According to medical notes, a call was made at about 03:30 on 6 September 2023 for a Category 1 caesarean section, which should take place within 30 minutes. Clinicians could not detect a fetal heart rate 45 minutes after the call for a Category 1 caesarean section.

Lois was born at 04:26 on 6 September 2023. Medics attempted to resuscitate her for 25 minutes after birth. A post mortem examination found Lois died from a sudden and severe lack of oxygen to her vital organs.

The post mortem found Lois's death was likely caused by breathing in her first stool and the onset of bacterial infection. Lois was stillborn, one of 2,341 stillbirths in England and Wales in 2023. The McCreadys spent four days in hospital with Lois after her death.

They bathed her, read her books, had casts made of her hands and feet and had family visits before saying goodbye and returning to a house full of baby items they placed in her room and shut the door. An NHS maternity safety investigation found a failure to call for a c-section by 02:40am.

The investigation found inadequate monitoring of Lois' heartbeat, failures in recording of risk assessments and using written handovers, and failures by midwives in raising concerns with obstetricians.

It also found that excessive vaginal examinations increased infection risk. The McCreadys made a medical negligence claim against Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. The medical negligence claim was settled out of court in 2025.

Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust acknowledged some mistakes but denied some allegations of care failings. The trust accepts that had a C-section been performed earlier, on the balance of probabilities Lois would have been born alive. The trust denies that Lois would necessarily have been born healthy.

David Carter said the trust had taken the findings of the independent maternity safety report extremely seriously. The trust had an action plan including improving care during early labour, strengthening risk assessment and record keeping, ensuring a senior doctor reviews women when care is delayed, and supporting staff confidence to raise concerns.

The CQC report from January 2026 rated maternity services at Luton and Dunstable Hospital as 'inadequate'.

Inspectors highlighted staff shortages, low morale, a failure to investigate and learn from incidents and delays to performing C-sections and inductions. Lauryn McCready said it is hard to hear promises of change from the trust only to find nothing is actually changing. The McCreadys raised £7,600 for the charity Abigail's Footsteps.

The rate of stillbirths in England and Wales has stabilised at about four in every 1,000 births. The couple have since had another daughter, Iris.

Lauryn McCready said Iris will grow up knowing that she has a big sister. "We are a family of four - even though it doesn't look like that, if you see us out or if you see us in pictures," she said. The McCreadys have given evidence to the Amos Inquiry, a national review of maternity care.

They support introducing a UK wide commissioner for maternity services, independent of government. They also want better education for pregnant women so they can advocate for themselves and say all families experiencing baby loss should have access to a cooling cot.