The scan was never offered. Joy raised concerns three times and was sent home: they lost their son.
Joy had a LLETZ procedure years before pregnancy. National guidance (Saving Babies Lives Care Bundle v3, NICE NG25, UK Preterm Clinical Network) says LLETZ history requires a cervical length scan at 16 to 24 weeks. This scan was never offered. Joy raised concerns three times and was sent home. They lost their son. The Trust later acknowledged in writing that opportunities were missed.
Daniel and Joy could not find a UK charity built around women like Joy that named race honestly and walked families forward, so they built one. Elkan's Light exists to bridge the gap between national clinical standards and the reality of minoritised maternity journeys. Registered 26 February 2026.
The Research: Systemic Failures and the Equity Gap
The data confirms that baby loss in the UK is race-explicit. Our work is guided by national reports and peer-reviewed research showing clear implementation gaps in maternity safety guidance.
More than 2x
The MBRRACE-UK 2025 figures report that Black women in the UK are more than twice as likely to lose a baby compared to white women. This disparity remains despite decades of national promises to improve equity.
13%
A critical implementation gap identified by BMJ Open: only thirteen percent of women with a history of cervical surgery receive the mid-pregnancy cervical length scan required by current national safety guidance.
4 Reports
The Morecambe Bay, Ockenden, East Kent, and Nottingham inquiries confirm recurring failures in NHS maternity care. These failures are systemic, documented, and continue to affect minoritised families disproportionately.
21%
Only twenty-one percent of women at high risk of preterm birth attended specialist clinics, according to BMJ Open research. This lack of access to specialized clinical care represents a critical failure in the maternity pathway.