'I was handed my lifeless baby': Mother tells ITV News of moment she was told her baby was stillborn
A couple whose first child was stillborn have told ITV News that more needs to be done to prevent the deaths of thousands of babies in the UK.
Rosalind Levine and her partner Maxie Allen's unborn baby Alexandra died during labour at nine days overdue in 2012.
"It's the hardest thing...to be handed your lifeless baby," Ms Levine told Health Editor Rachel Younger.
The couple now want more to be done to reduce the number of stillbirths in the UK, where there are an estimated 3,600 every year.
The couple, who have since welcomed daughter Sascha, were speaking as it was revealed the UK is still lagging behind other European countries in preventing stillbirths.
Mr Allen said stillbirth needed to be spoken about more openly so the issue stopped getting "overlooked" and risks could be reduced.
"Stillbirth is so dark; such a taboo subject; it gets ignored; it gets overlooked," Mr Allen said.
"Cot death was worked at and studied and the rate came down enormously - the same could still happen for stillbirth.
Speaking about the loss of her child, Ms Levine added: "This year, she'd have started school. We're going to have no photos of her in her school uniform going to school for the first time, we don't have any of that.
"We'll never have her meeting her first boyfriend, going to university, a wedding - we've lost all of that.
We should have a three year old running around with us now playing with her sister and we don't - all we have is a handful of photos."