Mum took miscarried baby to hospital in takeaway container – now she’s making sure there’s more dignity for others
A Nottinghamshire mum has created a gadget to help miscarrying women get through the horrific trauma of losing their baby. The Miscarriage Correction Cradle, designed by Laura Corcoran from Retford, provides practical help and dignity when a pregnancy ends in the first trimester. Women are given few practical tools to manage a miscarriage, and are often left to grab the first thing around the home, like a kitchen sieve, to prevent the baby from going into the toilet. Laura, who is also an insightful and enterprising engineer, has turned a horrific experience into something positive by designing, testing, and manufacturing the device, which is now successfully being marketed across the NHS. Her invention has been described by a midwifery teacher as “one of the amazingly clever little gadgets that can help have a more dignified ending to one’s pregnancy, as the cradle sits in the toilet bowl and catches the baby in a sturdy plastic sieve, thus preventing them from falling into the toilet. “The baby can then be retrieved from the sieve and parents can say goodbye to their little one in a more appropriate manner.” And, touch wood, it already seems to be saving the Health Service money. Many families suffer the tragedy of a miscarriage in the first trimester, just when they are excited and glowing about the prospect of having a baby. But the support from nurses and doctors when a baby dies early on, is not so practical or helpful as when a mum loses her baby right at the end. Many women are left with the indignity – and the physical impossibility – of trying to ‘catch’ their baby on the way out, just as they’re overwhelmed with physical discomfort and distress. The human body passes a lot of different stuff together when someone’s losing a baby, and the prospect of ‘catching’ pregnancy tissue when a baby has died can be very challenging. And in order to get proper treatment, the NHS often needs mums to bring tissue back into the hospital. Laura said: “I had to bring my baby to hospital in a Chinese takeout container.”
Laura with her husband Ronan at the North Notts Women’s Business Awards where she won the category for best new business
(Image: Retford Times)
After suffering a miscarriage of her own in February 2024, Laura got busy. She used design software to model the tool, which originally would fit on top of the toilet seat. She said: “On top it would shift around, so now it fits underneath the seat, and the weight of the person sitting on top holds it in place.” The Collection Cradle is manufactured in Derbyshire, made out of medical-grade plastic and tested to the ISO 13485 quality management system for medical devices. Laura said: “I personally tested it on over 100 toilets and it works.” Laura took the device to Nottinghamshire DIY stores to make sure it fitted all the different toilets. She said: “I’ve been around B&Q and Wickes in Worksop, avoiding eye-contact. “I would whip it out, test it, take a photo, then run out of the door as fast as I could.” As soon as she put the collection cradle on the market, Laura Corcoran had enormous success. She said: “I sent out an email on the first weekend of this year, and within six weeks I had my first order. Liverpool Hospital have got the device there – they were really quick to get funding. “I have worked in the NHS so I know it’s slow. But it’s in nine trusts now.” In fact the Collection Cradle is being used in Germany, Belgium and Britain too to help teach midwifery students. However, women in Retford may be the last to be helped. At Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospital, the team initially showed interest, but they appear to be let down by the very system that left Laura unsupported when she lost her baby in February 2024. She said: “I’ve really tried to get the device into that hospital and I’ve tried to donate some but they haven’t taken it up yet. “The collection cradle costs the same as the cost of removing a bag of clinical waste from a patient room. No more than that. “But until there’s data that proves it’s a cost saving, many NHS trusts won’t take it.” According to NHS rules, a mum must have three miscarriages before the family is offered proper treatment for the causes of the tragedy. Doctors need to collect tissue to perform medical tests in order to diagnose and prevent further miscarriages, so if surgical intervention and beds are not available, the mum is often asked to collect the tissue herself. Surgical intervention is currently the only reliable collection method, and hospital nurses’ care is often the best and most compassionate option, especially for collecting tissue samples. However, very often, beds are not available, and wait times can be weeks. Laura has lost six babies, including one that died just shy of seven weeks. She said: “Only a week earlier, I had heard their strong little heartbeat at a six-week scan. “How could this have happened? “I sat there in the scan room, numb and in shock. It was like I was frozen, while at the same time, hot tears streamed down my face. “My husband was with me, holding my hand, trying to be supportive, but I could feel his grief too. He didn’t know what to do, how to comfort me, while he was also struggling with his own pain. “The sonographer explained my options, but I barely heard a word. All I could think about was that my baby was gone. “I chose to have medical management at the hospital because I wanted all the support I could get. “I have a complicated medical history—I’m permanently on strong blood thinners—and I wanted to be in a safe environment. “But when I asked for help, I was told there was no room for me and to go home and come back in two weeks. Two weeks? I had just found out my baby had died, and now I had to wait? “I had to carry my dead baby around for two weeks, knowing that as I was walking around, my baby was decomposing inside of me. I was trying to keep them safe, but they were already gone. “I felt like I had become a mortuary, carrying this precious life inside me that was no longer living. “The pain of that realisation was unbearable. During those two weeks, my body started to miscarry naturally. I was terrified.”
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