A major independent review into maternity and neonatal services provided by University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust has officially launched, with bereaved parents set to give evidence about care failures they say cost them their babies' lives. The review, led by senior midwife Donna Ockenden — who previously oversaw landmark inquiries into maternity care failures in Shrewsbury, Telford, and Nottingham — is expected to examine more than 1,000 cases dating back to 2018, following a joint BBC and New Statesman investigation that found at least 55 infant deaths may have been avoidable. The launch matters because it offers the first formal, independent mechanism for accountability in a region where campaigning families, organised under the group Truth for Our Babies, have long argued that systemic failings were ignored.