BEREAVEMENT counsellors could be based at North Staffordshire's new maternity hospital after health bosses admitted they had let down a couple grieving over their stillborn baby.

Specialist charity The Dove Service had tried to set up a service for difficult or stillbirths at the hospital last year.

But its request was not discussed further by NHS Stoke-on-Trent.

Now the application has been re-submitted after The Sentinel reported how Jane Auden delivered a stillborn baby girl in the bath at her Chesterton home in January.

The 35-year-old had left the maternity unit less than an hour earlier, because the complex's two specialist bereavement rooms were unavailable.

Ms Auden later complained there was no bereavement support at the unit and she was diagnosed with depression.

The hospital is reviewing its stillbirth care after apologising over its treatment of Ms Auden and her 29-year-old partner Adrian Turner.

Now it has emerged The Dove Service has made another move to set up a service in the maternity unit after reading the couple's plight.

Dove Service chief executive Dr Simon Hankins said: "I linked my previous discussions with the health trust to The Sentinel's heart-rending article and this time we received a very speedy response with a meeting arranged to explore the issues and options further.

"I feel very positive about the outcome, because it is clear a service right in the neo-natal unit is required."

Hanley-based The Dove Service has worked across Staffordshire and Cheshire for 25 years offering support and counselling to parents, couples, families of stillborn babies and people affected by bereavement, illness or other significant losses.

A health trust spokesman said: "We are in discussions with regard to how we deliver such a service."

Ms Auden, who remains off work from Morrisons, in Milehouse, said: "I have still not had any bereavement support from the hospital, but have been contacted by the Sands stillbirth charity from Crewe.

"It would be good to have some support for people while they are still in the unit.

"I have also had a letter from the hospital saying they are ordering new beds for the rooms and having them re-decorated. The room I was left in is also being moved to a quieter, more appropriate part of the unit.

"These are all positive things and I hope it will stop others going through what happened to us. I can't bring the baby back, but getting improvements was our aim in making a complaint."