There are just hours left to sign a Medway couple’s petition calling for all midwives to complete bereavement training.

Jo and David Ward’s daughter Abigail Rosie-Ann was stillborn at 41 weeks in 2009 and they found maternity staff “woefully unprepared” to help them cope.

They set up the charity Abigail’s Footsteps which has led the way in midwife bereavement training with the funding of an online course and the production of an award-winning film, based on their experiences.

The Wards want bereavement training to be made mandatory for all midwives and maternity care staff, and launched a petition in February.

So far it has 2,581 signatures. At 10,000, the government will respond to the petition and at 100,000 it will be considered for debate in parliament.

But because of the general election all petitions now have to close at 00.01am tomorrow.

Speaking to Kmfm, Mr Ward said: “Midwives still don’t have to receive bereavement training and we believe that’s not right.

“They’ll often find the first time they are dealing with a neonatal death of stillbirth is as it’s happening in front of them and we don’t think that’s fair, we don’t think that’s right.

“To give bad news is very difficult in any situation but in a situation like this, for somebody to be ill prepared and untrained, it’s unfair on everybody, it’s unfair on the midwife and certainly not fair on the parents.”

He added: “Our plan was to get a petition up and running and see how many people we could get to sign it. We weren’t expecting to get the minimum 10,000 needed but if we could even get 3,000 it would be a massive step forward and even help us with our next campaign after the election.”

The charity’s film, The Deafening Silence, has 275,000 views and Mr Ward said if even a fraction of those signed, it would be a great help.

Sign the petition here.