A MOTHER who was preparing to deliver her dead baby was asked to consent to her daughter's cremation while she was sedated and vulnerable, a watchdog has ruled.

Cheryl Buchanan claims she was "handed a bundle of papers" to sign at the Princess Royal Maternity Hospital, Glasgow, but was unaware of what she was agreeing to.

The 35-year-old had just undergone a feticide procedure after deciding to terminate her "much wanted" pregnancy on medical grounds in 2004.

She had been sedated for the procedure to stop her baby's heartbeat and was facing the prospect of delivery when she was asked to agree to the cremation.

The Scottish Public Services Ombudsman yesterday upheld Mrs Buchanan's four complaints against the hospital, saying she should not have been asked to make such an important decision when she "lacked the ability to fully understand what it involved".

Ombudsman Jim Martin added: "I was also extremely concerned both that [Mrs Buchanan] was (in my view unnecessarily) asked to sign cremation forms at such a distressing time, and that I found no evidence she was given other options."

Mrs Buchanan, from Barlanark, Glasgow, went on to become involved in the baby ashes scandal after she was told there were no ashes for her to collect following the cremation at Daldowie Crematorium, South Lanarkshire.

The mother, who now has an eight-year-old daughter, told how she waited weeks before agreeing to a termination after doctors explained her baby had serious health problems and would die soon after birth.

She said: "In my head I wanted to believe it wasn't true, but I eventually agreed to the termination.

"I was taken in and the doctors inserted a needle into my stomach to stop the baby's heartbeat.

"I was later taken into a room and handed a bundle of papers.

"I don't remember anything really after that. They give you drugs for the procedure and also to calm you down.

"It's a horrendous thing to go through.

"I only found out a year and a half ago I had agreed to a cremation in those papers. A doctor later told me I should have been offered a burial."

Mrs Buchanan said she would have chosen a burial if she had been offered that option - a move that would have spared her the heartache of the baby ashes scandal.

She said: "At least then I would have had somewhere on this earth to go and be with my daughter.

"Now I have nothing of her, only a blanket and a few photographs.

"I was told at first there would be ashes, but when I called the crematorium I was told there was nothing.

"We still don't know exactly what happened to them, only that they were discarded, so they could have been thrown in a bin for all we know. It is a heartbreaking prospect."

Despite the ombudsman saying the hospital offered "good" support to Mrs Buchanan, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has been forced to apologise for "serious failings" in the case.

The ombudsman also made a number of recommendations for the health board, including that forms are fully explained and patients are asked for their consent at an appropriate time.

A spokeswoman for the health board said: "As with any death, there is paperwork to be completed and in every case there is no right time to discuss this with families who are grieving.

"Our staff deal with parents who have undergone a traumatic loss with the utmost respect and sensitivity. In the case of an early stage foetus the mother is asked about her preference - either through a funeral director for cremation or through the hospital's own mortuary.

"If a foetus is at a later stage of development we arrange for funeral directors to carry out a cremation or burial according to the wishes of the family.

"We will formally write to the patient offering our apologies."