A MOTHER who never knew where her baby son was buried wants other parents in a similar position to know where to go for help.

Jane Caldwell gave birth to her son at 30 weeks at Hereford County Hospital in August, 1979.

He sadly died shortly after birth due to a number of complications and her son's body was taken away.

She said she remembers very little about what happened after his birth as she hadn't slept for days leading up to it.

Jane said: "I was seen as an embarrassment. I was shoved into a private ward and sent home the next day."

She never knew what happened to her son until she read an article about how one parent tracked down the unmarked grave of their stillborn child.

She began to wonder what had happened to her son and found a voluntary organisation called brieflives-remembered.co.uk, which was started by Paula Jackson in 2014.

Paula and her team have found the resting place of 600 babies since the organisation was founded.

She started the search for Jane's baby and discovered he had been buried in his own coffin in a common grave at Hereford Cemetery with five other babies.

Jane contacted the crematorium and was shown where her baby was buried.

Jane said: "I just wanted other parents to know this. There must be so many other babies who have been 'lost.'

"I would just like everybody else in my position to have help."

A Herefordshire Council spokesman said the last time a grave was used for multiple interments was March 1983.

Common graves, now referred to as un-purchased graves are still used, but only for adult burials and for a maximum of two interments.

The spokesman added: "The section which is referred to as St Owen's old ground children’s section had the first interment in December 1970. This was a dedicated section and was also used for interments arranged by the hospital contract.

"In 1992 another baby section (Children's Memorial Garden) was created for families not using hospital contract. In 2002 all baby interments took place in this garden.

"We have to assume that babies who died in hospital were in some cases dealt with by the hospital administrator with a request through a funeral director to place them in a common grave."

If families do decide they would like to find out the location of a baby's grave, they can go to the crematorium office or call the office and the team will undertake a burial search.