A woman from Merseyside who spent more than five decades pursuing answers about her stillborn son told reporters she holds that his loss carried meaning, a view she expressed after the Health Secretary offered a formal apology. The baby Gina Jacobs delivered in February 1969 — a boy she named Robert — did not survive.
No sight of the infant was ever granted to her, while her husband received instructions to take the boy from the hospital and deposit him at the cemetery, all without any formal registration of a name. Speaking during a parliamentary debate held to mark Baby Loss Awareness Week, Health Secretary Yvette Cooper offered a formal apology to Gina, describing the ordeal she had endured as pain no person should have to bear.
Gina, a Greasby resident on the Wirral, told reporters that although advocacy had never been her intention, the experience had strengthened her view that Robert's death carried a purpose — helping other families find their stillborn children. In an interview with a broadcast news outlet, she described Ms Cooper's statement as having left her completely taken aback.
Recounting the exchange, she noted that the call came through to her mobile number directly from Yvette Cooper, prompting her sister to ask whether she was certain of the caller's identity, before Cooper offered an apology and outlined what would follow. She recalled that the news took a moment to register, given that the health secretary had placed the call personally. A direct phone call came through to her, and she responded with an expression of gratitude.
Gina described feeling overwhelmed with disbelief upon receiving the apology, expressing that the outcome had exceeded any expectation she had held. She described each of those individuals as someone she held in the same regard as her own children, and noted that they had now received the recognition and respect that had been absent at the time.
The site functioned as a disposal ground for infants. Before the mid-1980s, women in Liverpool and across Britain who lost babies to stillbirth or in the days after birth were typically not given the chance to hold or spend time with them. Those who experienced the loss later described being directed to stay silent rather than process their grief openly.
A motion tabled at Liverpool Council in August by Councillor Kris Brown, drawing backing from members across every party represented there, urged government ministers to pursue nationwide steps toward resolving long-standing concerns over grief and institutional injustice. At Liverpool Town Hall, Gina described the treatment of mothers and babies — which persisted into the 1990s — as devoid of compassion and basic human dignity.
Speaking to the assembled councillors, Gina recounted that her husband had been given false information — specifically, that their son's burial plot would be shared with a woman who had died at around the same time. His remains were identified at Landican Cemetery roughly fifty years after his death, in a plot shared with more than sixty other stillborn infants whose births had been recorded between 1968 and 1969.
Speaking before Parliament, the Health Secretary recounted that at the hospital the infant was taken from the room before the mother had any opportunity to see his face. The fact that he had been placed in a mass grave — without her being told — took years to reach her.
Over the decades, a number of families who lost infants in NHS hospitals found themselves without any role in deciding — or even learning about — what would become of their children's remains. Speaking on behalf of the government, an apology was extended to Gina and to the many other parents who have spent years seeking answers, a group whose numbers, the statement made clear, extend well beyond any single individual.
Expressing regret over the distress caused by those historical practices, the Health Secretary stated that what those parents endured should not have occurred and that steps would be taken to prevent a recurrence, while Gina described her reaction as an overwhelming sense of relief, having never truly believed a formal apology would come. The news landed without any warning or prior indication.
Gina expressed the view that her infant's death had not been without purpose — that it had set in motion a process allowing other missing children to be located — while other families have yet to recover any trace of their loved ones. Among those taking part are Linda and Eddie Bruchez, a couple from Gateacre whose own child was lost to stillbirth half a century ago and who have now joined the search.
Both Wirral and Oldham councils took steps to address the matter directly, bringing it before MPs and government ministers. Cllr Brown expressed the view that a formal apology from the government would carry meaningful weight. Putting the event on record, some argue, could offer those affected a degree of resolution.
Calls have been made for the Secretary of State and the Prime Minister to deliver a written apology and establish a national framework through which families affected by the scandal can access support. Questions about what follows an apology remain unresolved.
The Health Secretary noted that more than twenty local authorities had moved to adopt family support measures in line with those introduced by Liverpool Council, adding that the campaign itself had drawn their personal involvement. Describing the outcome as a positive development, Gina added that the pursuit of full justice remained an ongoing priority for her.
She went on to express a personal belief that losing Robert may have been what led her to this work. What began without any deliberate plan, she indicated, gathered momentum over time. Discovering the whereabouts of the infants, she said, brought the chance to visit and to mark occasions such as Christmas that had passed unacknowledged for so long. The Health Secretary indicated that infants remained unaccounted for, and gaps in the work ahead remain to be addressed.
