Hospital launches review of stillbirths

A trust whose maternity care is under scrutiny is launching a review of all stillbirths last year, it has confirmed to HSJ.

Sandwell and West Birmingham Trust (SWBT) confirmed it was due to begin a review of all 2025 cases.

This will include a “comprehensive” review of care provided to identify “themes and learning”.

It will also examine the reviews that staff carried out at the time of the stillbirths – a process which uses the national perinatal mortality review tool (PMRT). There have been concerns about whether those reviews were carried out properly at SWBT.

The new review will be led and hosted by SWBT, but with experts from NHS England, and clinicians from other trusts in the local maternity and neonatal system (LMNS), taking part.

It is the latest in a string of reviews to examine maternity care at SWBT, including the ongoing national investigation by Baroness Amos. The trust’s perinatal mortality has been flagged multiple times as an outlier, but it improved in the most recent data.

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Source: HSJ, 24 April 2026