Expectant mothers and their families are particularly vulnerable to stress and sensationalised media reporting aimed at shock, is frankly dangerous for them.

The Herald today has the above report headlining ‘inadequate’ staffing based on recording at the beginning of shifts in neonatal units but only several paragraphs later acknowledging that health boards ensure staff relocation to mitigate these initial shortages.

In 2023, the total number of midwives in Scotland had grown from 3 529 to 3612. https://www.nmc.org.uk/globalassets/sitedocuments/data-reports/may-2023/0110d-annual-data-report-scotland-web.pdf

As for the ‘spikes’ in deaths, this is misrepresentation of longer terms trends within which their are fluctuations due to multiple and complex factors not fully understood.

Here is the trend, the actual news:

The Herald notes a ‘spike’ in neonatal deaths in September 2021. You can see it in the dotted line to the right. Note that it applies to only one quarter in a falling trend over many years and so is not a spike but a normal fluctuation.