Law could change after Oldham couple’s traumatic experience

An Oldham couple are campaigning to change the law following the tragic loss of their daughter to help thousands of grieving families in the future.

On September 16 last year, Cassie and Ryan Claydon lost their daughter Matilda at 36 weeks after complications during the pregnancy. Throughout the whole process, the couple, who also have a five-year-old son, said they had been supported by NHS staff at Saint Mary’s Hospital in Manchester.

While the Chadderton-based couple had been cared for in hospital, their experience was entirely different when they went to register Matilda at Chadderton Town Hall.

Under UK law, stillbirths have to be registered within 42 days to officially acknowledge the baby’s existence, support public health data, and allow for arrangements to be put in place for burial or cremation. Currently this has to be done in person.

Ryan said: “We were sat in a room with other families with little boys and girls and newborns happy and celebrating. They were happy and we weren’t.

“It was a difficult scenario to be in when you have just lost your daughter. For us it was a traumatic experience.”

The couple looked to see if there was another way of doing the process but this was not possible. However during the COVID 19 pandemic, it had temporarily been possible to register over the phone or through the post.

Cassie said: “I just thought why is nobody doing anything about it? What I found when we were at St Mary’s was every part of it, every single moment of it, was heart breaking but the people there were trained to deal with that.”

She added: “It was like we went from being protected to being right in the thick of it again.”

As a result of what they went through, the couple approached Oldham MP Jim McMahon to see if he could help. Earlier this month, the MP introduced a bill to Parliament to make a small change to allow families to register a stillbirth remotely.

He said: “For some families, attending in person will be the right choice and that option must remain. But for others, the ability to register a stillbirth from home, surrounded by loved ones, would provide a small but meaningful act of compassion.

“Scotland has already shown that remote registration can work, protecting the integrity of the process while giving bereaved families greater choice and flexibility.

“Government cannot prevent tragedy. But it can ensure that its own systems are compassionate, understanding and fit for the people they serve.”
Mr McMahon added: “For Matilda, and for every family affected by baby loss, we can and must do better.”

Ryan told the LDRS: “People do not have go through that traumatic experience of walking to the registry office dealing with families with newborns when they have just lost a child.

“Just making that process a little bit easier is actually worth doing in my eyes. We know how hard that situation was.

“For us we know we are doing it for Matilda but we are also doing it because it’s the right thing to do. It would have been much easier doing it on the phone or video call surrounded by friends and family.

“We want families that suffer a loss in the future, we want to give them the option of not doing through that process.”