00:00It's the most heartbreaking of stories and I've got to pay tribute to families who have kept campaigning on this
00:09having been through the most awful experiences themselves and it just shows how crucial it is that we make maternity
00:18services a priority here in Leeds but also right across the country.
00:23It's about the very start in a family's life and I just think it's not been taken seriously enough for
00:30far too long.
00:30I was in labour for 84 hours and it was very, very crazy time, was not listened to and I
00:37eventually had an emergency T-section and my son was tired of oxygen for 25 minutes which resulted in the
00:43thought he had brain damage so he had to be called in intensive care to minimise the brain damage.
00:47Then after a week after my son was born I became very unwell and I wasn't listened to and I
00:52eventually got diagnosed with sepsis so I ended up having to stay in for a month and I had intravenous
00:56antibiotics.
00:57The health secretary is very, very receptive of what we were asking and the conversations. She listened intently to everybody's
01:04experiences and what we've been through and was really open with us about where she saw the direction of the
01:09inquiry going but also the national picture on a maternity front.
01:12But it's predominantly because this is her back garden. She is a MP down the road and her constituents have
01:19been impacted by Leeds so it was a chance for her to hear from some of her constituents but also
01:24to see wow this is on my doorstep and as health secretary what do I need to do to make
01:28sure this doesn't happen everywhere else.
01:30And as we know the statistics for Leeds were the worst in the country so if she can get Leeds
01:35right then we potentially will have a ripple effect to go into other hospitals and trusts and be able to
01:40reciprocate or duplicate the same work.
01:42For families right across Yorkshire everybody wants to know that that crucial time in life those maternity services that are
01:50taken incredibly seriously and that when things go wrong then there has to be strong action taken and not to
01:59have it just not taken seriously enough.
02:01So look I think we've got a real focus on improving maternity services improving the care not just here but
02:10right across the country but also making sure that the families who have been through such difficult experiences here in
02:17West Yorkshire can actually get the answers that they deserve from this new independent Ockenden review that is starting this
02:25autumn.
02:26It went very well got all our points across we felt very heard very listened to I feel now like
02:32something will be done and I feel like it's all going in the right direction that people are actually listening
02:36to and that the LGI will be held responsible and there will be a higher internal investigation and not just
02:44gas lit not just sweeping it under the carpet there's a massive problem in the maternity care and it is
02:48a crisis.
02:49What I'm determined is that we get both the answers for families where things have gone wrong and also that
02:54we have a proper framework to improve maternity services right across the country.
