THE death of a baby who tragically died 27 days after birth is due to be looked into.

Bosses at the Morecambe Bay NHS trust said the child, who had been found to have a high chance of being born with a disability, needed resuscitation at birth and later died at a specialist children's hospital.

The death, which bosses did not need to be referred to a coroner, is due to be reviewed using the national Perinatal Mortality Review Tool.

The system is used to review neonatal deaths in hospitals.

Details of the tragic case were included in a maternity care update for February to the hospital trust's board of directors this month.

A report said: "At 13+2 weeks the woman opted to have a nuchal translucency dating scan, which was resulted as a high chance for trisomy 21.

"Following this the woman chose to have invasive testing at the local Fetal Medicine Unit (FMU) in Manchester.

"She received negative amniocentesis results and continued to have serial growth scans from 28 weeks, due to recurrent reduced fetal movements from 22 weeks' gestation.

"The woman went into preterm labour at 35+1 weeks following a vaginal bleed.

"She received two doses of antenatal steroids before progressing to a Wrigley's forceps birth due to concerns with the fetal heart baseline.

"The baby required resuscitation at birth. The Paediatric team were in attendance. The baby was admitted to the local neonatal unit (NNU) for ongoing support.

"The baby was transferred out to Alder Hey and died of congenital neuromuscular disorder.

"There was a compassionate withdrawal of invasive ventilation following discussion with the parents.

"The coroner was not informed as this was an expected death."

The trust board was also told of two cases referred to the Maternity and Newborn Safety Investigations programme.

One case related to difficulty identifying the fetal heart during an epidural.

The procedure was stopped and a slow heart rate was found, the report said.

Tthe baby was born using an emergency caesarean section, requiring resuscitation before becoming stable.

The trust has maternity units in Barrow, Kendal and Lancaster.