HEALTH officials have denied poor antenatal care contributed to the death of an unborn baby.

Joanne Gifford, 26, and her partner, Stephen Law, 43, from Warminster,were left heartbroken after she gave birth to a stillborn boy, Thomas, at the Royal United Hospital in Bath, 37 weeks into her first pregnancy.

Miss Gifford, of Prestbury Drive, criticised the staff shortages and faulty equipment she believes contributed to her son's death. She said: "I know nothing can bring my baby back, but I want people to be aware of the problems. When I was pregnant with my first child I wanted the experience to be great. It wasn't."

Julia Clatworthy, chief nurse and director for clinical governance for the PCT said: "We are very sorry for Joanne Gifford's loss. It is always very sad when a baby is stillborn. "We are reviewing the details of this case with a multi-disciplinary team to see what happened and what we can learn from the case."

Mrs Caltworthy said she was satisfied no harm was caused by the occasional instances of faulty equipment, or the fact that Miss Gifford saw a number of different midwives throughout her pregnancy.

"Equipment does occasionally break or fail, and is then immediately replaced without causing harm to a mother's care," she said.

"One of the reasons Joanne saw so many midwives in the last weeks of her pregnancy was because she was being seen every day.

"The midwives take pride in the high quality of their work and are upset by this loss, and send their condolences to Joanne and her family."

Miss Gifford said on a number of occasions the pumps used to measure blood pressure were faulty and the cuffs were the wrong size.

She said she felt seeing different midwives each time caused unnecessary stress, which was detrimental to her health and that of her unborn baby.

"I had five midwives, instead of one to have that bond with," she said. "Each time a midwife came round to see me it seemed to be a different one, and apparently this was because of staff shortages."

She said staff shortages were also the reason given for the cancellation of antenatal classes she was supposed to attend at Warminster Hospital. In the latter stages of the pregnancy Miss Gifford suffered from high blood pressure, which was monitored daily by midwives.

Concerns about the health of the baby were first raised at one of these daily appointments.

While carrying out a routine check on the baby's health, the midwife could not detect a heartbeat. Miss Gifford was taken to the RUH, where it was confirmed on January 2 that Thomas had died in the womb. On January 4 Miss Gifford gave birth to her stillborn baby.

Mrs Clatworthy said there were four stillbirths during December and January in the region for which the PCT provides maternity care, but said it was a low number compared to the national average.