A grief-stricken mum whose baby died after hospital failings is mounting legal action against the trust in a bid to prevent others from experiencing similar heartbreak.

Elena Sala's daughter, Rosanna Matthews, was born on November 20, 2020, at Tunbridge Wells hospital in Pembury but passed away three days after being born into a coma.

Last month, a coroner ruled the tot's death, which happened after she was urgently transferred to Medway Maritime Hospital in Gillingham, was avoidable.

Coroner Catherine Wood said Rosanna "died as a consequence of hypoxic ischaemic brain damage due to congenital pneumonia and placental abnormalities, contributed to by a period of avoidable hypoxia prior to her birth."

Former barmaid Elena, from Maidstone, 21, told the inquest she felt she was being ignored as a young first-time mum and believes her daughter would still be here today if she was allowed to push when she asked.

The inquest also heard from a midwife from the hospital admit there was 'errors in communication' between midwives.

Now she and her husband, David Matthews, 30, are taking legal action against the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust and want to launch a campaign and spark an investigation into the hospital's conduct.

Ms Sala says she has spoken to around 20 mums who have experienced traumatic experiences and feel they were disregarded for being young mums.

She said: "We have a lot of anger towards the trust. We are in the process of taking legal action. I know that in other cases around the UK, such as Shrewsbury, it took all of the mothers to get together to report all of their avoidable babies' deaths for the hospital to be taken under investigation.

"This is what I want to achieve. Many people have reached out to me and had very similar, unfortunate experiences and it needs to come to an end.

"There is strength in numbers and I would say to any other mum 'do not be patronised because of your age, vulnerability or any other reason'. Trust your gut, you know your own body.

"Also, whenever experiencing that a professional isn’t looking after you right or there is a personality clash, or maybe they are being rude, disrespectful, lazy or you feel they’re incompetent – you have every right to ask for a change in care.

"As for the bereavement side of things – the pain will never go, however, there will come a time where you learn how to handle the pain so that it no longer cripples you all of the time, only some of the time and then you can find little pockets of happiness in between."

Ms Sala, who gave birth to daughter Lola without any complications at Medway Maritime Hospital last year, said hearing Rosanna's death was avoidable was "soul-destroying" but validated how she and her partner have felt for the past two years.

She added: "The whole process has been incredibly hard, we have had multiple battles with our mental health as well as having the continuous wait for the final coroner’s conclusion to assist us in understanding how our little girl lost her life.

"We’ve just been trying to imagine what Rosanna would have been like now she would have been two years old."

Ms Sala is trying to speak to as many mums as possible and urging them to make complaints to the Care Quality Commission to spark an investigation.

She and her partner are taking legal action in pursuit of a civil claim and will be suing the NHS trust.

The former Mascalls student, who used to live in Yalding, explained how she has heard from other mums who have been "disregarded" while in labour.

She added: "Many of these mums also had their waters broken for multiple days similar to me. It seems there needs to be a better system of checking for hind water leaks to prevent sepsis and other infections.

"I do need more numbers, these 15-20 also have contacts of more mums so hopefully the group will expand soon.

"It's devastating, especially when many of these babies died after Rosanna, therefore there hasn’t been any progress since her birth/death.

"Its very much an 'oops that went wrong -another one died, cover up and move on' type situation happening here and it needs to end."

Following the coroner's conclusion, a spokesman for Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust said: “Our deepest sympathy remains with Rosanna’s parents.

"We are very sorry her care fell short of standards we work hard to offer women and their families and offer our sincere apologies.

"The trust has taken a number of actions to improve maternity services and we will review the findings of the coroner to ensure we continue to learn and develop our care.”