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Re your report (‘They want the truth’: Meet the woman who finds the graves of stillborn babies May 28), in 1958 our first baby was among six little ones who died when he was just five days old at St George’s Hospital, London, due to a virus in the maternity ward.
We never knew where she was buried because the Jewish tradition was that if a baby died under the age of one week, it would be buried with another unknown elderly Jew. This practice was supposed to encourage us to look forward to having more children instead of forever mourning the loved one we lost. We never forgot her – I still remember her face even though I’m 92 now – but we had four more lovely children. The pain has never completely left us, but this tradition helps us come to terms with it.
Margaret Owen
London
The tragedy of bereaved parents being separated at birth from stillborn children is clearly real. I was kept away from my brother’s funeral (he was seven and died in the 1949 polio epidemic) and I later learned it was harmful. However, I am not sure about the MPs getting caught up and asking the government to apologise.
It is probably quite true that the professionals at the time believed that the policy was the right one, just as my parents believed that it was best that I be protected from my brother’s death. Why should we apologize for what was a genuinely well-intentioned mistake? What mistakes are we making today that future generations will feel free to accuse us of?
Jeremy Cushing
Wiveliscombe, Somerset
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