At long last the Government has posted its response to the petition I started seven months ago.

I never expected there to be any sort of substance to it, but even so it is still alarmingly arrogant:

"Maternal deaths in the UK are extremely rare. Each is a tragedy, which is why the Government takes any maternal deaths seriously and funds the Confidential Enquiry into Maternal Deaths (CEMD). Each avoidable maternal death is one too many."

Funding the CEMD is not actually taking action. The CEMD only produces a report of recommendations. With regard to sepsis, it has been making the same recommendations in report after report, to little or no effect. The incidence of sepsis/childbed fever/puerperal fever/whatever you care to call it has been rising since 1984, and a worrying number of healthcare professionals are ignorant of its cause, symptoms and devastating outcome.

"In the last published report of the CEMD for 2000-02, only five of the 13 women who died from infection, out of more than the 2million who delivered safely, died from what is known as puerperal fever (sometimes also known as child bed fever) after a normal delivery."

The other eight women died of the same disease, with the same symptoms, their deaths are just labelled differently because they had a caesarian. Their lives are just as important, which is why I prefer to include them and talk about 13 deaths (which accounts for 12% of all deaths that were a direct result of pregnancy/delivery during 2000-2002.)

These deaths are avoidable, so saying that it is a small proportion of the safe deliveries is arrogant, insulting and misleading. None of those women should be dead. It is not an acceptable percentage of risk. When talking about a life, one is too many. This point was made in the first paragraph of the response, but obviously not meant as it was countered by this statistic. It sounds pretty much like Ivan Lewis' response to a parliamentary question my MP tabled.

"The CEMD's next report, Saving Mothers' Lives, due to be published on December 4, will update healthcare professionals on clinical guidelines for the management of serious illnesses affecting pregnant or recently delivered mothers. The recommendations of the report are circulated to all maternity professionals and, in future, their implementation will be audited by the Healthcare Commission. Since the last report was published, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence has also published clinical guidelines for both birth and post-natal care."

The CEMD's next report will again report on the mothers whose lives were not saved, including Jessica. The title of the report is again misleading and insulting spin. I have written about it before, here. The bottom line though, is that it will be another report full of statistics that won't actually address the issue or achieve anything. See above for comment on the perpetual lack of attention to these reports.

All I wanted was the Government's recognition of the unnecessary waste of life and a positive determination to drag us out of the dark ages and protect our mothers. Tonight I feel stupid for even bothering to hope for that. Tomorrow I'll do something myself.

The petition on the Downing Street website will close on 12th October. Please add your name to it, if you haven't already, and ask anybody else you know to do the same.

Already it is in the top 1% of all petitions, but there's still time to make it go higher with more signatures.

Every signature will help to make the Health Department take notice of this horrific illness and save mothers' lives.

Thank you for your support.

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/maternaldeath/

The petition has a month left to run before it is closed.

It's amazing that so many have already signed it, but there must be so many more people who would sign it, if only they knew about it. It would be equally amazing if everyone, rather than just sign it, told ten or more of their friends and family what and where it is and asked them to sign as well.

So many people have thanked me for my efforts, but it's not me - I only signed once - it's all of you who read, remember and refer as well as adding your name. Thank you.

The Confidential Enquiry into Maternal and Child Health (CEMACH) publishes triennial reports reviewing all cases of maternal death. The most recently published report, 'Why Mothers Die' is for the period 2000-2002, and I have often quoted (both in these pages and to the press) the statistics it found and also its recommendations, few of which seem to be taken up, as they are repeated report after report in alarmingly consistent language.

The next report, for 2003-2005, is now to be called "Saving Mothers' Lives", as I have just learned from CEMACH's updated website, and it will be published this December.

This sounds to me like spin. The report, by it's very nature, highlights the cases of mothers who have died, not the ones who have had trouble free experiences, or even 'near misses'. If they do plan to discuss cases where the NHS has saved an ill mother, I could let them know of many horrendous near miss stories that have filtered through to me, but I suspect that - whatever the name - it will be the same report on the same causes of the deaths of the mothers that weren't saved.

If this Department of Health sponsored report wants to pat its master on the back, it should do so elsewhere. Jessica's case will (confidentially of course) be included in the statistics, reviews and summaries, and I don't for a moment believe that she will be alone in its 'Genital tract sepsis' pages.

In fact, I highly suspect that there won't be much of an improvement on previous triennia, but I'd love to be wrong. The bottom line, though is that what we and the NHS need to know is Why Mothers Die and how to stop them dying.

Whatever the findings, please let them be acted on this time.

Reminder: the petition closes in mid-October, so there's still time to help it make a difference in advance of December's report.

When I stand out in our garden, like just a moment ago, and I can hear Emily sitting in the bathroom, gently singing a word - and almost tune - perfect rendition of 'Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star' my heart bleeds for her, and for Harry.

I ask myself, 'What can I do to make their lives better?' I know where my weaknesses as a parent are, and I know where my strengths are. I need to work on some things, but I think I'm doing an OK job, and they are, essentially, happy.

I can't, though, fix what is really broken, but I can try and stop the same breaking for other children, and I'm always trying to think of new ways of achieving it. However, I can't do it alone. I need help, so please; pass on an email to all your family and friends about my website and ask them to spare a minute to sign the petition, because the more people that know, the less likely a repeat of Jessica's death is, and because the more people who sign, the more likely that the government and the NHS will take notice of our need for our mothers.

If you're on Facebook, you can help spread the message by joining the group, Petition to end Childbed Fever. Then, please, invite all your friends to join and encourage them to sign the petition too. It'll only take a second, but it could delay one other Diamond in the Sky.

So; the beds are made and the press release is finished. Thanks to a very kind man, David Standard, who's Head of Media Relations at Irwin Mitchell, my weekend draft was honed and finalised, and is now on its way out to journalists with a maternity/healthcare interest.

It's been a really encouraging day for the campaign, I've received another slew of messages of support, and one very kind offer of a donation which I've put on hold for the time being. Mental note to self: investigate charitable status and set up a bank account.

As I told the individual concerned, what Jessica's trust really needs is wider awareness and more signatures. Thanks to the Internet, running costs are still minuscule, even if man hours spent is escalating. It probably won't stay that way, so must watch own pocket.

For now I really need you to sign and let all of your friends and contacts know about the website and petition so that they can sign too.

What I hope is that people learn to look out for the tell-tale signs of childbed fever themselves, before it is too late, in the same way that parents are told to look for the signs of meningitis in their babies.

There is no need for anyone to die of this horrific and easily treatable illness. If I can help to save lives by telling Jessica's story, then our very dark cloud may have a silver lining after all.

In a brief moment of silence, I can sit at my computer. My children, Harry and Emily, are devouring post-party goodies, so I can make a start with some work, except I'm blogging instead.

Jessica's trust has been up for about four weeks so far, as has the petition - so I want to take stock. Thousands of site visits, tens of thousands of page impressions and even more 'hits' on the site, but what does that mean? Currently 2,279 e-signatures on the petition. It's a lot, and I'm really pleased, but its not enough!

The number of signatures could be a measure of awareness achieved, but it's not because many, many more people are 'meaning to sign' but haven't yet, even though they know about Jessica and they know about childbed fever. So come on - sign! Then it may be a measure of awareness after all.

Oh, and don't forget that you need to click the link in the email you'll receive from No.10, or your signature won't be added.

Finally, please help spread the word. It does help, and it is saving lives. More on that another time.

I sometimes feel, when I'm a web reader rather than a writer, that web sites and the people behind them can be a bit intimidating, so I observe but don't get involved.

I imagine that Jessica's trust may be the same. I write, I craft and I create a petition, but short of the petition signers, I only get a little feedback. I'd love to have more, but the stories, comments and observations that I do hear are so powerful that I wonder if I could take in any more. Do try me though, it makes it all worthwhile.

For this reason I set up the Your Say page. It isn't about me or Jessica any more, it's about the future mother and her family, so they deserve to be heard as well. Maybe commenting on a blog will be more approachable. I hope so, so go on: have your say!