“National Guidance”

The coroner’s concerns

1. National Guidance. There is no national guidance in the antenatal setting to establish when and in what circumstances fetal monitoring should be used especially when chorioamnionitis is suspected. Further there is no specific guidance that has been brought to my attention to identify and treat chorioamnionitis in pre-term mothers. Clear guidance exists for intrapartum fetal monitoring but in this case the grey area between Nola-Reign's mother being nearly but not in active labour meant that there was confusion as to whether continuous monitoring should or could have been put in place. 2. Health Board Antenatal Fetal Monitoring Guidance. Following NolaReign’s death the serious incident review recommended new guidance to address antenatal fetal monitoring. However, the new local guidance for antenatal monitoring does not reference chorioamnionitis, transfer times or the need to consider continuous fetal monitoring. 3. Training. There is insufficient evidence from the Health Board of the nature or degree of training that has taken place since Nola-Reign’s death to assist obstetric and midwifery teams to identifying the risk of chorioamnionitis and to ensure adequate monitoring is in place in particular: 4. Delay in transferring between Antenatal and HDU wards. The delay in transferring Nola-Reign's mother from antenatal ward to HDU was over 1 hour in a situation when acuity was not raised. This issue was not identified by the Serious Incident Review yet was a material factor in the period when NolaReign's mother remained unmonitored and no steps have been taken to identify causes for delay and to avoid unnecessary delay occurring in the future. 11. COPIES AND PUBLICATION OF THIS REPORT I have a duty to send a copy of my report to every Interested Person who in my opinion should receive it. I also may send a copy of the report to any other person who I believe may find it useful or of interest. I can confirm I have sent the report to: [please do not use individual’s names, but instead roles/titles]  Family members and NEXT OF KIN I also have a duty to send a copy of the report to the Chief Coroner. You may make representations to me, the coroner, about the publication of the contents of this report in line with Chief Coroner’s PFD Publication Policy (2026). Any representations will be sent to the Chief Coroner alongside the report. Please refer to box 4 above for additional information relating to the publication of reports and responses. 12. SIGNATURE Martin LANCHESTER Assistant Coroner for Gwent

An extract. Read the full report, including the circumstances of the death, on the Courts and Tribunals Judiciary website.

Source

judiciary.uk, Prevention of Future Deaths reports, 2026-0322

Added to Minute Book

8 Oct 2026

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Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: Courts and Tribunals Judiciary, judiciary.uk. Open Government Licence v3.0