Giving birth can be emotionally-draining enough for a new mother, without then being told her new-born baby has a serious heart defect.

Kelly Funnell had a right to expect support and sensitivity while at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton.

Instead she was told to catch a train to Guy's Hospital in London, where son Marshall was being taken in the one available ambulance.

The hospital staff who treated her this way were not only guilty of tactlessness but Ms Funnell was also placed in serious danger, just seven hours after giving birth.

She was still feeling very faint and in severe pain.

The last place she should have been so soon after the birth was in a draughty doorway of a crowded train for more than two hours.

Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust has admitted its staff did not provide Ms Funnell with the service she should expect.

Hopefully hospital staff will be made sternly aware that no mother should have to suffer like this again.

An apology is welcome but this may be of little comfort to Ms Funnell, who suffered such a trauma on what should have been one of the happiest days of her life.