The BBC obtained data from the trust showing potentially preventable baby deaths through a Freedom of Information request.
This revealed at least 56 cases from January 2019 to July 2024, made up of 27 stillbirths and 29 neonatal deaths – which is a death within 28 days after birth.
In each case, a trust review group had identified care issues it considered may have made a difference to the outcome for babies.
The trust-led reviews were conducted by multidisciplinary teams which regularly included people who did not work for the trust.
The trust also recorded two possibly preventable maternal deaths in the same period.
It did not give any personal details about the 58 deaths, so we do not know whether they include the families we have spoken to.
The deaths reviewed by the trust included babies with congenital abnormalities, and newborns and mothers transferred after birth from other units because they required specialist care.
The trust said the number of neonatal deaths it had recorded as potentially avoidable was “very small”.
LTH had the highest neonatal mortality rate in the UK of 4.46 per 1,000 live births in 2022, according to the latest report by MBRRACE-UK – which reviews stillbirths and neonatal deaths but does not analyse if any of these are potentially preventable.
BBC analysis of this data, which was made public last July, shows this increased from 3.30 per 1,000 live births in 2017.
The LTH 2022 figure is 70% higher than the average rate for comparable NHS trusts.
MBRRACE-UK grouped Leeds with 25 other trusts which it says provide a similar level of care. Specifically, they all have a level three (the highest level) neonatal intensive care unit and perform neonatal surgery. The group is complex, with different specialisms.
LTH told the BBC there are an increasing number of complex pregnancies and births in the region – including an increase in babies born with severe cardiac conditions – leading to an increase in the neonatal mortality rate.
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