A REVIEW identified potential care issues over the tragic death of a baby at Furness General Hospital, according to a report.

Board members of the trust that runs Furness General were told how a baby born with no signs of life was the subject of a maternity review.

It found there were issues which may have led to a different outcome for the baby.

The findings of the report were fed back to the family, a report presented to the Morecambe Bay NHS trust's board of directors said.

Papers described how the mother attended the South Lakes Birth Centre at FGH more than 31 weeks pregnant where doctors found issues with the baby's heart rate.

A decision was later made to perform a caesarian but the baby was born with no signs of life and an unsuccessful attempt was made at resuscitate.

The report said several issues were found in a postmortem examination including a bone marrow disorder that can occur in babies with Down Syndrome.

A probe into the case was conducted using the national Perinatal Mortality Review Tool, used to review deaths in hospitals.

Summarising the review, a report said there were issues over the decisions on providing the caesarean and the resuscitation, with 'multiple areas of concern' raised over the latter. 

"The review team concluded that if the woman had been taken for a caesarean birth sooner the team may have been able to resuscitate the baby, however, considering her cord gases and postmortem findings it's likely that she would have been very unstable/poorly if resuscitation had been successful," the report summary said.

"The review team also graded the baby's care as having an issue which may have made a difference to the outcome.

"The review team highlighted multiple areas of concern around her resuscitation."

The maternity update report said there were no stillbirths or neonatal deaths across the trust in July 2024.

The trust has been working to improve maternity services since a damaging inspection by the Care Quality Commission.

Last year the watchdog said improvements had been made at FGH since its maternity services were rated 'inadequate' in 2021 but further changes were still needed.