Statement from The Lily Mae Foundation in Response to the Amos Report.....

The Lily Mae Foundation welcomes the publication of the Independent Investigation into Maternity and Neonatal Services in England, led by Baroness Valerie Amos.

First and foremost, our thoughts and hearts are with the thousands of bereaved and harmed families who have shown immense courage in coming forward to share their deeply painful experiences. For many, reliving the tragedy of losing a baby or suffering severe harm is an agonising process. To every family who took part; thank you. It takes extraordinary strength to relive the hardest days of your life in the hope of sparing another family the same pain. Your voices are entirely vital if we are to achieve the systemic overhaul that our maternity services so desperately need and they will shape the change that must now follow.

Confronting a Clear, Systemic Crisis

The findings of the Amos Report paint a deeply distressing, yet devastatingly familiar, picture of the state of maternity and neonatal care in England. For years, baby loss charities, advocates and families have sounded the alarm on the preventable tragedies occurring within our healthcare system. The report's confirmation of systemic failures, overstretched resources and a frequent failure to listen to parents reinforces what we see every day in our work supporting grieving families.

The report is right to treat listening to parents not as a courtesy, but as a matter of safety. We hear it too much; families who raised concerns and were not believed and parents left to fight for answers when something had gone terribly wrong. When families are forced to battle for the truth about what happened to their baby, their grief becomes immeasurably harder to carry.

Of particular concern are the stark, unacceptable inequalities highlighted within the report. It is a painful reality that Black, Asian, and minoritised ethnic mothers and their babies continue to face disproportionate risks and exclusionary practices. True equity in care, where every parent and child is treated with dignity, compassion and equal safety, must be the baseline, not the exception.

Compassion and Dignity When the Worst Happens

For the families we support, the care received in the darkest hours of their lives stays with them forever. Bereavement care can never be an afterthought. We therefore strongly welcome the report's call to place bereavement and trauma-informed care at the core of training for every clinician and to provide dedicated, private bereavement facilities so that no parent receives devastating news in a busy waiting area, or is asked to grieve their baby in a space that was never designed with them in mind.

Just as vital is the right to answers, we welcome the recommendations that families should be able to request an independent investigation when they are not given the truth, that learning must be shared when things go wrong and that the Government must finally respond to the long-delayed consultation on coronial review of stillbirths. Bereaved families deserve honesty, accountability and the assurance that their child's loss will help protect others.

Moving From Recommendations to Action

While we welcome the investigation's thorough articulation of these long-standing issues, families do not just need another report; they need urgent, tangible action. The history of maternity care in England is unfortunately littered with vital recommendations that were simply never implemented. This cycle of inaction must end now.

We welcome the report's central recommendation for a new statutory Maternity and Neonatal Commissioner, accountable to Parliament. We call upon the Government and the NHS to ensure that this role, together with the National Maternity and Neonatal Taskforce, does not merely review these findings, but enforces strict accountability and rapid systemic change and we advocate for a genuine culture shift within trusts, so that the voices of parents are centred, respected and listened to at every stage of their care.

Our Continued Promise to Families

As the system grapples with these findings, The Lily Mae Foundation remains strongly committed to our core promise. We are here to provide unwavering support, bereavement support and a safe community for any parent, sibling, or family member navigating the devastating loss of a baby.

We will continue to work alongside fellow advocates to ensure the recommendations of the Amos Report are fully realised, centring anti-racism, safety and compassion so that no more families have to endure the preventable loss of a child.

Ryan Jackson BEM & Amy Jackson BEM