Baby Loss Awareness Week 2026

I thank all the members who signed my motion on baby loss awareness week, helping to make the debate possible, and those in the chamber and in the public gallery who are attending the debate this evening.

I pay tribute to all those charitable organisations that work so hard to support those who are living with baby loss; they visited the Parliament today and provided briefings for the debate. I especially thank Sands, Simba, Held In Our Hearts, Ayrshire Baby Loss Support and the Lullaby Trust. For the work that those organisations do day in, day out to support those who are dealing with baby loss, they deserve our thanks and recognition.

When I was a member of the United Kingdom Parliament, I secured the first ever debate in that Parliament on the issue of stillbirth. I led for my party on the annual baby loss awareness week debates, and I worked cross party to deliver statutory paid bereavement leave for all parents who lose a child up to the age of 18, introducing an amendment with that leave added on to statutory maternity leave for those who endure a stillbirth. However, there is still much work to be done.

Many members will be aware of my and my husband’s personal experience of the issue. In 2009, after five years of fertility treatment, I had what doctors and midwives called a “textbook perfect pregnancy”. I was healthier than I had ever been, until my due date, when the most extreme form of pre-eclampsia, known as HELLP—haemolysis, elevated liver enzymes and low platelet count—syndrome, left me in terrible pain.

After being treated with appalling disregard when I arrived at the hospital, I was reluctantly—and with very poor grace, to put it mildly—shown to a bed and pumped full of morphine, only to awake and discover that my full-term, 8lb 5oz son, who was an otherwise perfectly healthy baby, had died. In a cruel twist of fate, the date of his death is recorded as 15 October, which is baby loss awareness day. With repeated attempts to force a natural delivery, to which my body would not respond, my liver ruptured and my husband was told that I, too, would not survive.

The reason that I begin the debate in this way is that, although my experience should be, and ought to be, an isolated and unusual event, even 17 years later I continue to hear other stories from other devastated couples that show that it is still not isolated or unusual. It is extremely hard to escape the fact that nothing much has changed since my experience in 2009. When things go wrong, the walls go up and the silence comes down. Hospitals close ranks, and promised investigations lead to nothing but meaningless clichés about lessons being learned.

The frustrations that I and my husband suffered after the loss of Kenneth James Stewart Gibson, and the lack of answers, led us to commission two independent reports of our own, from two top obstetricians at the University of Edinburgh and Newcastle University respectively. They found, independently and separately, that systematic and basic failings had happened at every turn. Still, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde refused to accept any responsibility or provide any meaningful explanation.

We left the hospital not with a child in the car seat, but with an appointment at the local undertakers to arrange a funeral. At the funeral of a baby, there is only the silence of unfulfilled potential—a life stopped in its tracks by a system that simply does not work and for whom no one is held accountable, due to cover-ups and evasion. The system is so huge that it simply rolls over and crushes those who question it.

Fast forward 17 years on from the death of baby Kenneth, and we hear the same experience repeated by too many bereaved parents. Today, therefore, I have some specific and commonsense reasonable asks of the Minister for Mental Wellbeing, Public Health, Sport, Alcohol and Drugs. I understand that the Scottish Government has launched an independent review of maternity services, and so it must. However, I urge the minister to ensure that the review extends to all health boards so that we can see clearly which boards have failings to address, and where, and which, boards model better practice from which others may learn.

Will the review launched by the Government ensure that it takes into account the serious and devastating maternity failings in the past on which the failings of the present have been built? The failings that are happening right now did not develop overnight; they have taken root in a culture of secrecy, cover-up and obfuscation when things go wrong. A meaningful review must not be limited in where it can shed light—it must uncover, admit and acknowledge the culture that has grown over time.

Will the review make sure that health boards are not marking their own homework? When things go wrong, they must be reviewed and investigated by an independent third party, not someone who themselves is embedded in the system and culture that they are charged with investigating. Will the review set out what can be done to ensure that the standards and protocols that are already in place are adhered to? If that is done, many of the babies who die would not do so—basically, people just need to ensure that they do their jobs in the way that they have been trained to do them, and if they do not, there has to be some accountability.

For the future, will the minister ensure that data collection is consistent across Scotland, so that we will know the extent of any progress that is made in saving babies’ lives? Health boards across Scotland do not consistently record and disclose adverse incidents. Without consistent reporting, it is impossible to truly measure any progress that might be made. There needs to be compulsion and consistency across Scotland on the reporting and collection of data.

I fear that, unless those elements are included in the review’s terms of reference, it will be difficult to see how we can move the dial on maternal and neonatal health. We cannot continue as we are, with recurring patterns and systematic failures—it simply will not do. If we are to have that independent review, it has to be meaningful.

In Scotland, in 2025 alone, 300 babies were stillborn or died in the first year of their lives. That is not inevitable—better care would make a huge impact on those appalling and unacceptable figures. If there was a disease that killed 300 babies each year in Scotland, there would be outrage and anger, and demands for action, yet with cases of stillbirth and babies dying in the first year of their lives, most of which are avoidable, there is simply not enough outrage. There needs to be.

I do not want to stand in the chamber every October, just as I did in the House of Commons, and hear that lessons will be learned, only for nothing to substantially improve. The experience of too many expectant parents is that they go into hospital to have a baby and emerge with their hearts broken, a sheet of card with handprints and a funeral to arrange. That cannot go on.

I referred earlier to the wonderful charities that help families through the trauma of stillbirth and neonatal death. The fact is that they have more people to support than they should. Maternity care has to be better. We cannot save the lives of all the babies who have died due to systematic failures—they are gone. However, the independent review, if it is to do what it needs to do, which is to save more babies’ lives, address shortcomings and challenge poor care, needs to focus on the asks that I have put to the minister tonight.

I ask the minister to please do all that she can to make sure that the review is not an opportunity for meaningful improvement that passes us by. I ask the Parliament and the Government, and the minister, to grab the opportunity with both hands, for all the children who are yet to be born. [Applause.]

I thank Patricia Gibson not only for securing the debate, but for sharing the story of baby Kenneth with members today; I pass on my regards to you, too, Presiding Officer.

There are some things in life for which it is hard to find the words, and the loss of a baby is one of them. When a baby passes, it is a loss of firsts: the first cuddle, the first Christmas, the first birthday and all the other firsts that will never come.

I believe that every human life has dignity and value, and I do not think that that dignity depends on how long somebody gets to spend on this planet. A life does not become less precious because it was brief. Loss is loss and grief is grief, and we should not measure the value of a life by how far along a pregnancy was, or measure grief by how long the child was here. For some families, the grief is immediate; for others, it comes back years later, with a birthday, a photograph or a song, or simply seeing another child when their child would have been around the same age. There is no timetable for grief and there is no right way to grieve.

That is why this year’s baby loss awareness week theme, “Together, we care”, matters so much. You do not have to have experienced baby loss yourself to care about someone who has. Sometimes you do not need to find the right words—you just need to be there. We need to remember that the person carrying that grief is not always the person we see crying. It can be the dad, the husband, the brother or the uncle, who has gone back to work, day after day, making the dinner and trying to keep everybody else in the family going. They need support, too.

There has to be the right support at the right time, and in the right place, and that is where our local communities can make a real difference. I pay tribute in particular to Julie and Bryan Morrison and everyone at the Baby Loss Retreat. Julie and Bryan know this pain themselves—they lost their baby daughter, Erin. From that terrible loss, they have built something that helps other families through some of the darkest moments in their lives. They provide counselling, trauma support and remembrance retreats for bereaved families.

I have spoken before in the other Parliament about the work of the Baby Loss Retreat and the importance of recognising babies who are lost before 24 weeks, because recognition matters. Being able to name a baby, remember a baby and acknowledge that a life existed matters to those families. The work of the retreat reminds us that support is not about saying the right thing once; it is about being there afterwards. It is about recognising that grief does not have an expiry date, and ensuring that families get the support that they need.

The Scottish Government has taken important steps such as introducing a graded model of miscarriage care and funding the national bereavement care pathway, but there is more to do. The baby loss awareness alliance tells us that

“1 in 5 late miscarriages, stillbirths and neonatal deaths may have been prevented with better care”.

Where there are lessons to be learned, we have a responsibility to learn them, and where care can be improved, we have a responsibility to improve it.

However, Governments cannot do everything, and a lot of the real work happens through charities, healthcare professionals, volunteers, friends and family. For some families, faith is a part of how they make sense of their loss. It might be simply lighting a candle, saying a prayer or having a quiet moment to remember their child. There is something powerful in lighting a candle for a child who is no longer here, saying their name, remembering that they brought joy and knowing that their life had meaning. On 15 October, families around the world will take part in the wave of light, lighting a candle at 7 pm in memory of babies who have passed. It is one small light in the darkness—a small way of saying, “You were here, you were loved and you will never be forgotten.”

There is a quote from the Sands website that I think says a lot about what grief really is:

“Behind grief sits love, and who doesn’t want to talk, and celebrate and remember that?”

Let us remember these families and their babies; let us say their names and recognise the lives that they had and the love that surrounded them. Most importantly, let every family that is affected by baby loss know this: you are not alone. Your precious baby mattered, your grief matters and you do not have to carry that grief alone.

18:10

It is a pleasure to follow Miles Briggs. I thank Patricia Gibson for the leadership that she has shown on this issue, not just in this chamber but over many years, including when she was in Westminster. I associate myself entirely with her remarks and with the calls that she has made to Government tonight. I say to the minister that Ms Gibson is not somebody who is particularly large, but she is not somebody whose requests I would shirk. If she is making calls to the Government, do not ignore her.

Moving on from that humorous point, I acknowledge that this is an incredibly difficult debate. The point that Mr Briggs put on the record about dads sometimes not being able to express themselves is a classic example of that. Even as I stand here just now, I do not know how much I plan to share tonight about our most recent experience of baby loss, which occurred just in June. The point that Mr Briggs makes about the support that is available to parents is incredibly important.

As Steven Bonnar has done, I want to make reference to Baby Loss Retreat in Glasgow. He was right to mention Bryan and Julie Morrison, who I would consider to be friends now. They are remarkable people, and the journey that they have been on and the way that they have channelled their energy to remember Erin, particularly through Erin’s app, is something that is to be commended.

I came to know about Baby Loss Retreat not through my own recent personal experience, but through the experience of a very dear friend I grew up with, Gillian McClellan, who also went to Garrowhill Primary School. Gillian and her husband, Christopher, experienced the loss of their child, Daisy, and they benefited from support from Baby Loss Retreat, not just through counselling but in terms of the retreats as well. It is a challenge for Bryan and Julie Morrison to run that organisation, because much of the work is done on the basis of good will. Given that many such organisations are doing the work that, frankly, the NHS has often vacated, I ask the Government to be mindful of that. I know that resources are tight—I am very alive to that—but I ask the minister to engage with Baby Loss Retreat, if for no other reason than to learn about the amazing work that it has done on Erin’s app, which I have certainly found quite helpful.

I do not want to make this debate about me or us—I do not think that that is the right thing to do—but there is a niche issue that I want to ask the minister to liaise with colleagues in the Department of Health and Social Care in England on, and she will understand why in a moment.

In England, there are baby loss certificates and, in Scotland, we have the memorial book of pregnancy and baby loss. We need to understand that families come in very different shapes and sizes. People’s arrangements are very different. The reality is that the arrangements around the baby loss certificate mean that, if a father is domiciled in Scotland, he cannot be recognised as the father of that child, and the same thing goes for the arrangements in Scotland: if the other parent is domiciled in England, they are not recognised.

I realise that that is a niche point. We will not be the only people who have been affected by that, but when things really matter to you, they really matter. I therefore ask the minister, politely and courteously, to engage with her colleagues in the Department of Health and Social Care and to rectify what I think is a very simple issue, which would bring an awful lot of serenity to those of us who have experienced the pain of baby loss.

18:30

In order to accommodate the final two speakers, I am minded to accept a motion without notice, under rule 8.14.3, to extend the debate by up to 30 minutes. I invite Patricia Gibson to move such a motion.

Motion moved,

That, under rule 8.14.3, the debate be extended by up to 30 minutes.—[Patricia Gibson]

Motion agreed to.

18:36

Like others, I am privileged to speak in tonight’s debate. I thank Patricia Gibson for bringing the debate to the chamber, and for the manner in which she did so. Her speech was probably the most moving speech that I have heard in this session. I wanted to put that on the record.

Like David Linden, I am not sure how much to share personally. I found myself agreeing with the sentiment of his speech a lot. As colleagues know, I have three children. However, before each of the children were born, my now wife and I experienced losses. Each experience was different in terms of the interactions with medical professionals, as well as the experience itself. However, what I will say is that, in my experience, and as most colleagues—I was going to say most women, but it is probably most colleagues—in the room will understand, mum carried most of the burden. I think that that is the case across the country and across the world. Women continue to carry the burden, the stigma and the shame that still exist, although we are getting much better.

The support that is there is limited and it is not fully focused on a mum’s needs. Meghan Gallacher and others touched on that. Baby loss can occur in various ways: for example, at a routine check-up or through an ectopic pregnancy. Various different types of support are needed, and we should be doing a lot better in that area. I wanted to make those remarks to start off.

Like others, I want to praise all the organisations that are involved. Today I met Joanne, who is from Airdrie, outside the Parliament. I think that she might be in the public gallery. I missed the photo call, but I met her as it was finishing and we had a wee chat. She works for Sands, which is a charity that does an absolutely fantastic job. I thank it for all that it does for parliamentarians in raising awareness of the issue, as well as for the work that it does across Scotland. I also want to thank Joanne. As I said, she is from Airdrie, which is nearly Coatbridge and Chryston; she is almost a constituent.

As Steven Bonnar and David Linden have already done, I also want to pay tribute to Baby Loss Retreat. I have known Julie and Bryan Morrison since about 2016, when they first contacted me. Like David, I consider them friends. The work that they have done through the charity has been absolutely phenomenal. The work that they do to keep Erin’s name out there is wonderful, whether through the retreat itself, Erin’s app, which has been mentioned, the men’s counselling, which Bryan runs, or the advocacy and policy change work in conjunction with Sands and others. It is just fantastic. I know that the minister is due to meet Baby Loss Retreat. The meeting was meant to happen today. However, because of other parliamentary business, it has been moved. We are looking forward to having that meeting. Julie and Bryan are my constituents. I hope that that alleviates David Linden’s concern: they will get to meet the minister soon.

Progress has been made, as members have talked about.

I feel sorry for the minister, because, obviously, we are all standing up on what is an emotionally charged subject and—rightly—asking for various things to be changed. However, given my experience of knowing the minister for 10 years—we were elected at the same time—I do not think that there is a better one for this, because Maree Todd cares deeply about women and children, and she is the right person to take the issue forward. I hope that she can take that away as well as all the asks that she has been given today.

Obviously, we are making progress. There has been the memorial book and certification, which was mentioned by David Linden. The point that he made about where people are domiciled was a good one. I had not been aware of it, and I hope that it can be taken up as well.

Memorial gardens are popping up in different council areas. For example, Julie and Bryan Morrison have done quite a lot of work in North Lanarkshire to make sure that memorial gardens come up in various cemeteries. Those are becoming more apparent now as we break down the stigma.

However, more must be done. I do not think it acceptable, in this day and age, as we hear all the time from constituents, that mothers and families who have lost a child are in the same ward or hall—or whatever people want to call it—in which children are being born. That is not the fault of any nursing staff or hospital. We could never blame it on them. It is just the way that the system is. However, surely we can fix that, because it just seems really cruel. It gets mentioned a lot. As I said, it is not the fault of any individual, and I hope that we can all come together to find a solution.

The theme of the week is, “Together, we care.” That has been shown in the Parliament tonight.

18:41

I am grateful to Patricia Gibson for the members’ debate tonight and for her motion marking baby loss awareness week 2026. I am truly humbled to speak in the debate. As we have heard from various members, the week comes under the theme, “Together, we care.” As Meghan Gallacher touched on, we are seeing the Parliament at its best tonight, because we do all care, and it is wonderful to experience the debate.

The reminder is simple but powerful: no one should face alone the devastation of pregnancy loss or baby loss. We have heard the numbers: 318 baby deaths in 2024, including 159 stillbirths. Research tells us that half of adults have been touched by the loss of a pregnancy or baby, either personally or through someone that they know. Behind every number is a family whose lives have been changed forever. Parents, grandparents, siblings and friends carry a grief that is too often silent and still too little understood. It is not an abstract issue. It is about quiet conversations in general practice surgeries, empty nursery rooms and anniversaries that are marked in private.

I have been humbled and privileged to work with the Scottish baby loss collaborative—Held In Our Hearts, Sands, Simba, Miscarriage UK, Antenatal Results & Choices Scotland, Baby Loss Retreat and the Lullaby Trust—which we hosted in the Parliament last year. I remember—and have heard about from Miles Briggs and Meghan Gallacher—Held in our Hearts. I was privileged to meet its representatives about four years ago. They had contacted me. I still remember that visit. It stays with me and will do so for the rest of my life. Both are here today, and I am humbled to have them as friends as well. Their message is clear and consistent: every family in Scotland deserves timely, compassionate, specialist support, wherever they live.

I have been humbled to meet families who have suffered baby loss. Tonight and this week, their experiences should be at the forefront of our thoughts. Just last year, we had a round table on the issue. I met a family—a mum and dad—who had lost their daughter at three years old. They left the hospital and their aftercare support was being given a leaflet. I remember how that felt to them. That stays with me. The mums and dads need our support.

Support across Scotland varies. The hospital to home model should be adopted across Scotland. I thank the minister for meeting Held In Our Hearts with me just last month. It was a fantastic visit. I agree with Fulton MacGregor that we could not ask for a more caring minister.

Another important point that Fulton MacGregor made was about dedicated spaces away from busy maternity wards. Consistent bereavement pathways are important. Psychological care should be available when it is needed, not just when baby loss happens but for the months and years after that. There should also be opportunities for families to acknowledge and remember their babies. Those are not optional extras but the basics of a caring society.

I pay tribute to the charities, the specialist midwives, the bereavement support workers and the countless volunteers who work alongside the families in their darkest hours.

This week is about awareness, but it must also be about action. Let us use this debate to reaffirm our collective commitment to listen better, to support better, and to ensure that no parent in Scotland feels isolated in their grief.

18:45

I am grateful for the opportunity to close this important debate.

I thank Patricia Gibson for bringing this motion before Parliament to mark baby loss awareness week. I absolutely agree that her contribution was powerful and moving, and I will respond to her specific asks in the course of my closing speech. I hope that the Presiding Officer will indulge me, as there have been a number of asks.

I also thank all the members who have contributed this afternoon, particularly those who have shared personal experiences of pregnancy or baby loss, or the experiences of their constituents. Those contributions help to break down the stigma, challenge the silence, and ensure that families who are affected by pregnancy and baby loss know that they are not alone.

Baby loss awareness week provides an important opportunity for reflection, remembrance and awareness. This year’s theme, Together, we care”, reminds us that supporting those affected by pregnancy and baby loss is a shared responsibility. It involves healthcare professionals, but it also involves employers, communities, charities and wider society.

Throughout the debate, members have highlighted the profound impact that pregnancy and baby loss have on families. Although every experience is different, the need for compassionate and person-centred care remains constant. Members have rightly highlighted the vital role that is played by charities and third sector organisations. Organisations such as Sands, Held In Our Hearts, Bliss, Tommy’s and many others provide practical and emotional support, advocate for change, and ensure that lived experience informs improvements in care. The Scottish Government recognises that contribution, and continues to fund organisations that provide bereavement support, counselling, peer support, neonatal family support, and support for implementation of the national bereavement care pathway across Scotland.

The national bereavement care pathway remains central to our approach. It was developed with bereaved parents, healthcare professionals and third sector organisations, and it sets out standards for care following miscarriage, stillbirth, neonatal death and other forms of pregnancy and baby loss. All NHS boards are signed up to the pathway and continue to progress implementation, and we continue to fund the baby loss charity, Sands, to support all 14 boards in that implementation. As I said, all 14 boards are officially signed up to the NBCP. They have all appointed a lead, and they are at different stages of implementation.

I had a wonderful visit to Held In Our Hearts recently with Paul McLennan. It was really powerful and humbling to hear directly from the people involved in that charity about the work that they do and the difference that they make. In addition to the £245,000 in funding that we already provide for the continued support of that project, we have been absolutely clear that we would consider further match funding where NHS boards commit to implementing the service in their areas. That would help to ensure that more bereaved families can access the support that they need. If one thing becomes simpler through the public service reform that we are progressing, I hope that it is that process. It is about ensuring that things happen once for Scotland, and that would be a great win for us.

Members have also spoken about miscarriage care. Scotland’s delivery framework for miscarriage care and national progesterone pathway are helping to deliver more consistent and compassionate care. We continue to support implementation across NHS boards, backed by £3 million of Scottish Government funding over the past two years.

David Linden, and others, mentioned the action that we have taken to recognise pregnancy loss before 24 weeks through Scotland’s memorial book and certificate, giving families an opportunity to acknowledge their baby and create a lasting record of their loss. I am ashamed to say that I was not aware of the issue that David raised. I am absolutely more than happy to commit to resolving that cross-border issue, and I will keep him updated on progress.

We know that support does not end when a family leaves hospital. Pregnancy and baby loss can affect mental wellbeing, relationships and family life for years afterwards. That is why ongoing support is so important. Families want assurance that we will continue to improve care for women and babies, and do everything that is possible to prevent baby loss. That includes acting on the best evidence available, ensuring that mothers and babies receive the right care at the right time, funding the Scottish patient safety programme’s work to reduce stillbirth and neonatal death, and participating in UK audits that identify opportunities to improve care.

When things go wrong, parents deserve compassionate support and clear answers. Healthcare Improvement Scotland’s maternity standards, which were published in March, include standard 11 on loss and bereavement, setting out the care that women should expect following pregnancy or baby loss. Since September, maternity units are being inspected against those standards. Healthcare Improvement Scotland is also reviewing its approach to adverse events to ensure that investigations remain robust and supportive for families.

Finally, I highlight the review of maternity services, which was raised by a number of members around the chamber, including Ms Gibson. The review began on 5 October 2026—just last Monday—and is chaired by Professor McCourt. Work and engagement with families and clinicians will be central as the review considers further improvement to maternity and neonatal services. On ensuring that the review extends to all health boards and learns from good practice, I can confirm that Professor McCourt has outlined that she will meet all health boards as part of her review. She will also do intensive week-long deep dives to visit a smaller number of health boards.

On taking account of the failings of the past, Professor McCourt absolutely appreciates how essential it is to listen to women and families throughout Scotland to ensure that their experiences are at the heart of the review. She has already begun meeting families who have contacted her.

On the specific point, as the member knows, all neonatal units in Scotland can provide overnight accommodation for families when needed, but we recognise that in some areas there is pressure on that accommodation. We need to respond to that. I am more than happy to pick up that issue with the member outside the chamber—I know that that issue is of long-standing interest to her. I expect us to work together to continue to deliver on that.

On the independence of reviews, as Ms Gibson said, we do not want boards marking their own homework. We have published the “Maternity and neonatal (perinatal) adverse event review process for Scotland”, which sets out clearly our expectations for the review of adverse events, including involving external panel members in reviews. All NHS boards are expected to follow that process in full in maternity and neonatal services, and we monitor that through ongoing activity with NHS boards. Additionally, the Scottish Government is undertaking work jointly with Healthcare Improvement Scotland and the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service’s Scottish fatalities investigation unit to improve the quality and timeliness of significant adverse event reviews in health boards.

On ensuring that standards and protocols are adhered to and, if not, accountability is pursued, we published our maternity standards in March this year. Those set out our expectations about standards of maternity care, including bereavement care. HIS is continuing inspections of maternity units; that will include, from now onwards, inspection of boards against the maternity standards. However, we recognise that there are multiple demands and pressures on our maternity services. That is why we have initiated the independent review, which will learn from past experiences and practice—both poor and positive—to make recommendations.

On Ms Gibson’s ask in relation to consistent data collection on adverse events, I absolutely agree that that is really important. Our perinatal adverse event guidance sets out when boards should carry out a perinatal significant adverse event review, and boards should consistently report all category 1 SAERs to Healthcare Improvement Scotland. This time last year, the former cabinet secretary wrote to every health board chief executive in Scotland to make clear his expectation that all boards work with Healthcare Improvement Scotland to improve the timeliness and quality of significant adverse event review investigations and reporting, and that they provide regular reporting to HIS in order to strengthen the oversight and scrutiny of such reviews.

Today’s debate has demonstrated the progress that has been made and the challenges that remain. The Scottish Government remains committed to improving care, reducing inequalities and ensuring that everyone affected by pregnancy or baby loss receives compassionate and person-centred support.

I absolutely agree. That is an important point, which will be covered by the independent maternity review. We have asked the chair to look specifically at outcomes for black and minority ethnic groups, including the indigenous Gypsy Traveller community, because we know that their outcomes are significantly worse than those for the rest of the population.

As we mark baby loss awareness week, we remember the babies whose lives were sadly cut short and recognise the pain that is carried by parents, siblings, grandparents and wider families, as we have heard during the debate. On 15 October, families around the world will participate in the wave of light, and the Scottish Government will once again illuminate its buildings as a symbol of remembrance and solidarity with bereaved families.

I close by thanking our NHS staff, our charities, our volunteers and campaigners and, most important, those with lived experience who continue to share their stories and drive change. Together, we care; together, we remember; and, together, we will continue to strive to ensure that no family experiences pregnancy or baby loss without the compassion, dignity and support that they deserve.

Meeting closed at 18:57.