Overview
- On Wednesday Kelsey Parker gave her first TV interview about last summer’s home birth, saying her son Phoenix was stillborn and recounting the immediate emergency response.
- She says paramedics removed the baby and the police labelled her home a "crime scene," took blankets and towels, and allowed her to hold Phoenix only through a mattress while her partner never held him.
- Parker says she was then taken to a busy hospital maternity ward with a police officer outside the room and later discovered that standard bereavement procedures had not been followed.
- The Metropolitan Police apologised for calling the address a crime scene, said learning has been implemented and offered a meeting with a detective inspector and a child bereavement nurse, while the ambulance service expressed regret and said attending paramedics had not seen a stillborn baby before.
- Parker is using the interview to press for changes to emergency bereavement care, to secure the return of personal items taken at the scene, and to push for clearer, more sensitive follow-up for grieving parents.