An SNP MSP has spoken about the loss of his child as he urged the Health Secretary to widen a review into baby deaths at an East Ayrshire hospital.
Kenneth Gibson told the Holyrood chamber about the ordeal he and his wife Patricia, the MP for North Ayrshire and Arran, suffered when she was due to give birth in 2009.
Mrs Gibson has previously opened up in the House of Commons about the "devastating" effect of losing a baby.
Read more: Review ordered into baby deaths at Crosshouse Hospital
Mr Gibson called on Shona Robison to expand a Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) review announced on Monday after two families whose babies died during childbirth at Crosshouse Hospital in Kilmarnock spoke out about their experiences.
He said: "I urge the Cabinet Secretary to make this inquiry wider and deeper.
"On her due date in 2009, my wife Patricia, having been sent home and been physically sick, was finally admitted to the Southern General (in Glasgow) maternity unit despite their protests.
Read more: Review ordered into baby deaths at Crosshouse Hospital
"A consultant junior doctor and two midwives examined her that day. Despite being 41, a first-time mother and in extreme pain from head to toe, no-one picked up her pre-eclampsia. She was given morphine and put to bed.
"Overnight our baby died and had to be delivered by caesarean. Patricia's liver ruptured and she spent 19 days in intensive care and high dependence.
"For 20 months we asked (NHS) Greater Glasgow and Clyde to explain how they would prevent such a failure of care reoccurring and impacting other lives.
"They blanked us and when we were thereby forced to take legal action, hired a QC, wasting thousands in taxpayers' money to defend the indefensible.
Read more: Review ordered into baby deaths at Crosshouse Hospital
"It took five years before they eventually conceded this year. What will the Cabinet secretary do to ensure other people in Ayrshire, Glasgow and elsewhere in Scotland are not treated as badly when they experience such a tragedy?"
Ms Robison said she sympathised with the Gibsons' "appalling" experience, adding: "We would expect all health professionals to treat anyone who has suffered any bereavement with care, dignity and respect. Clearly that didn't happen in that case and we should learn the lessons from that case."
Labour MSP Anas Sarwar raised figures from a BBC investigation showing that Scotland's maternity hospitals have recorded more than 25,000 adverse incidents since 2011.
The figures, released to the broadcaster under freedom of information legislation, showed the most serious incidents included the deaths of 26 newborns and three mothers, as well as 79 stillbirths.
Read more: Review ordered into baby deaths at Crosshouse Hospital
Mr Sarwar called for the review to be extended to look at staffing across all maternity units in Scotland, highlighting 500 incidents relating to staff shortages.
The Health Secretary said NHS Scotland met the Royal College Of Midwives' recommended midwife-to-birth ratio, and patient safety programmes had resulted in the lowest levels of stillbirth and neonatal deaths on record as well as a decrease in maternal deaths.
"In those really, really significant adverse events, the worst kind, we have seen huge progress being made through that patient safety programme so that it is fair to say that our maternity and neonatal units are safer now than they were four or five years ago," she said.
June and Fraser Morton's son Lucas died at Crosshouse last November.
South Scotland MSP Brian Whittle asked whether the family could have any faith in the new review "when the lessons have not been learned nor recommendations implemented from past systems failings".
Read more: Review ordered into baby deaths at Crosshouse Hospital
Ms Robison said a previous review in 2012 had established important changes, adding: "If there are cases where those processes have not been applied properly then I will absolutely take action to ensure that that is addressed."
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