As part of journalist Krupa Padhy's documentary on BBC Sounds - How Safe Is Maternity Care? - she talks to safety campaigners and parents whose babies have died due to lack of care and communication. Krupa also shares the story of her daughter Ellora, who died after a long and difficult induction.
It's a hard listen but it's an important and essential listen and the message is clear for anyone who is pregnant - roar, ask questions, know your rights, ask why, ask about your options.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing and the parents say they wished they'd known to challenge the decisions and suggestions, they wished they had been able to make themselves heard. They don't want anyone to experience what they have been through.
Krupa talks of the guilt she feels "could I have done more, should I have done more?" Dr Karen Joash from Queen Charlotte's in London, where Ellora was born, responds with an apology: "I'm so sorry for that, there was nothing else you could have done, the guilt should have been taken away from you and given to us."
I work with expectant and new parents, I attend births, I have given birth three times - I have experienced, witnessed and heard about excellent care, which has been warm, supportive and personalised so parents can feel safe as they labour or be involved in decisions about how their baby is born.
But I have also experienced, witnessed and heard of substandard care which has included lack of communication, dismissive comments, being told off, policy driven conversations and we know best attitudes.
I encourage parents to ask questions in order to know and understand their options, to enable better communication and to be treated as an individual. But with pregnancy and birth comes vulnerability - you can say and do what you can but the responsibility of care and safety lies with the maternity staff.
If you are pregnant and preparing for labour and birth, please don't be frightened but do go into labour knowing that you can ask questions, you can be involved in decisions and your voice matters.
This is a really sensitive issue but I would love your comments and questions because talking about it can only be a good thing.
Janine
antenatal & postnatal specialist