An NHS trust has admitted it failed to provide safe care and treatment to three babies who died within days of their births.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) charged Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) NHS Trust over the deaths, which all occurred in 2021.

At Nottingham Magistrates’ Court on Monday, the trust admitted six charges of failing to provide safe care and treatment to the three children and their mothers.

The court was told that “serious and systemic failures” exposed all three mothers and their babies to significant risk of avoidable harm.

Lawyers acting on behalf of the trust told the families in court they offered their “profound apologies and regrets” to those affected and that improvements have been made, including hiring more midwives and providing further training to staff.

The trust is expected to be sentenced on Wednesday after entering guilty pleas on Monday.

The charges relate to the deaths of Adele O’Sullivan, who was 26 minutes old when she died on 7 April 2021, four-day-old Kahlani Rawson, who died on 15 June 2021 and Quinn Parker, who was one day old when he died on 16 July 2021.

It is the second time the CQC has prosecuted the trust over failures in maternity care.

It was fined £800,000 for a “catalogue of failings and errors” that led to the death of a baby 23 minutes after she was born at the Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham in September 2019.

Wynter Andrews died due to a lack of oxygen to the brain shortly after his, mother Sarah, underwent an emergency caesarean section.

In 2020, the trust admitted a “breach of duty” after Kim Errington lost her son Teddy.

He was just one day old after the pair were discharged from Nottingham City Hospital.

Meanwhile, Jack and Sarah Hawkins were awarded a £2.8m settlement after the trust admitted failings in care which led to the death of their daughter Harriet in April 2016.

NUH is at the centre of the largest maternity inquiry in NHS history, with midwife Donna Ockenden leading the investigation.

In February she confirmed the number of families taking part has increased to 2,032 – forcing a delay to her report’s publication until June 2026.

‘Contemptuous and inhumane’

On Monday, Nottingham Magistrates’ Court heard the CQC describe failings at NUH in relation to the deaths of three babies – Adele, Kahlani and Quinn – in 2021.

The regulator identified a lack of adequate systems and processes, or them not being appropriately implemented, to ensure staff managed all the risks to mothers and their babies.

The court was told that one of the pregnant women, Emmie Studencki, went to the hospital four times before her son Quinn was born in July 2021 after suffering bleeding.

An inquest concluded it was a “possibility” he would have survived had a Caesarean section been carried out earlier.

In a statement, Ms Studencki said the trust’s treatment of her, her son and her partner Ryan Parker had been “contemptuous and inhumane” and they had been left broken.

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Mother left ‘screaming in pain’

The court also heard Adele O’Sullivan died 26 minutes after being born following an emergency Caesarean in April 2021.

Her mother Daniela had noticed bleeding and suffered abdominal pain but in a victim impact statement said she was left “screaming in pain” and, despite having a high-risk pregnancy, was not examined for eight hours before Adele was born.

She said: “People who were supposed to help me did not help but harmed me mentally and physically forever.”

The trust also admitted liability in another case involving mother Ellise Rawson, who had reported abdominal pain. She faced a delay in receiving an emergency Caesarean section in June 2021. Her son Kahlani suffered a brain injury and died four days later.

Kahlani’s grandmother Amy Rawson told the court that her grandson’s death was a “preventable tragedy” that had left the family “devastated, broken and numb”.