We have experienced the NHS Maternity crisis at first hand and paid the ultimate price.

Rachel, a Personal Fitness Trainer was fit, healthy and low risk, having had a ‘text-book’ pregnancy. We wanted a natural birth experience and so opted for a Birthing Centre.

We visited the centre on several occasions and being a standalone unit was reassured that should anything go wrong, which was unlikely, we were a short ambulance ride away from the nearest Maternity Unit.

However, during the late stages of labour the Midwife detected a deceleration in the baby’s heartbeat. They got Rachel out of the birthing pool as a precaution and examined her. After a while they said we were to be transferred to hospital.

Alarmingly, we were told the nearest hospital was closed to new admissions and that we would be taken to a hospital around half an hour away. We had no idea that this could happen; we were never told this when we were making our decision to elect for the Birthing Centre.

On arrival at the hospital we thought we would be taken to theatre for an emergency c-section, but Rachel was taken to a delivery room and continued to labour. A monitor was placed on Rachel and we saw a heartbeat and I thought ‘thank God the baby is OK’.

Around an hour and a half later the baby was born. I didn’t hear anything. They didn’t even say whether it was a boy or girl. It was only when I went to the back of the room did I see it was a boy, but he was in trouble. They were trying to resuscitate him.

After 45-minutes they stopped. A pediatrician explained that the baby had been dead for some time. I asked how this could be when we had seen the baby’s heartbeat.

He said they believed they were monitoring Rachel’s heartbeat. It was a real nightmare which was just beginning. We got through those first few grim days with the incredible help and support of our families.

Rachel was extremely fragile and each day brought its particular challenges, but we found an amazing inner strength to deal with the terrible loss of Jake.

During the first few months we corresponded with the NHS Trust to fully understand why this happened and also to ensure that changes were made so this didn’t happen to anyone else. We didn’t want Jake to have died in vain.

It could have all been so different had the nearest hospital not been ‘too busy’ to take us. We still don’t know exactly why it closed; lack of beds? staff shortages?

Finally, we met with the Chief Executive of the Trust to discuss these changes. We didn’t feel they went far enough and so we reluctantly decided to take a legal position. Over the next few months there were numerous delays from their legal team which added to our frustration, so we decided to go public.

During the year we had collected the names of the key health and medical journalists and we sent our story to the relevant publications. Within an hour The Sunday Times said they wanted to use our story as it demonstrated the terrible consequences of Maternity Units closing, which happening on a regular basis Nationwide.

Following the article in The Sunday Times, we were inundated with requests from the media to tell our story and during that week appeared on National TV (BBC Breakfast, five, BBC London News), in the National (Daily Mail, The Times, Evening Standard) & Local Press (Welwyn Hatfield Times, Enfield Independent, Hendon Times) and Radio (BBC London 94.9FM, BBC 3CR 103.8FM). Subsequently we have featured on ITV This Morning, Tonight With Trevor McDonald and Grazia Magazine.

From the start we wanted to ensure that Jake made a difference with his legacy of helping others.

We deliberated long and hard, but it felt right for us to share our experience for the greater good and to campaign to stop other people suffering as we have. We had fantastic support from our families, friends and Sands (Stillbirth and neonatal death charity).

Our campaign to ‘keep hospitals open’ has been gaining a huge amount of momentum through the media. We built a website, which gives others the opportunity to share their experiences of maternity hospital closures and the awful consequences suffered.

We have the backing of our local MP for Welwyn Hatfield, Grant Shapps and have written to the Prime Minister and Health Secretary. We firmly believe that by collectively telling our stories we will begin to change the system to keep our hospitals open and help to save lives.