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Birthmarks mistaken for bruises

Most Asian and Black babies are born with blue grey birthmarks that can look like bruises. In 2024 a mother in Hampshire was held overnight by police after her son's were taken as a sign of abuse.

Updated 12 October 2026 (2 minute read)

BeneficenceNon maleficenceJustice
  1. Review finds accidental bruises are rare in babies who cannot move around
  2. Laxmi Thapa is arrested after a GP visit
  3. Hampshire Hospitals apologises
  4. National guidance defines independently mobile

Summary

Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital, run by Hampshire Hospitals

Dig deeper

  • Babies who cannot yet crawl or walk almost never bruise by accident. A 2020 review by children's doctors put the figure at 0 to 1.3%.
  • For that reason national guidance tells clinicians to consider abuse when they see a bruise on a baby that young.
  • In December 2025 the guidance was updated to define "independently mobile" for the first time, as a child who can crawl, bottom shuffle, pull to stand or walk.
  • The NHS says a blue grey spot "should be recorded on their medical record" when a baby is born, so that anyone who examines the child later can check.
  • A 2025 review cited a study in which only 20% of the images in medical textbooks showed darker skin.

Ethical issues

PrincipleHow it applies here
BeneficenceA birthmark recorded at the newborn check can be looked up by the next clinician. Asking the parent whether the mark has always been there takes less than a minute.
Non maleficenceDoctors must report a suspicion of abuse without waiting for proof, because missing it can cost a child's life. When the suspicion is wrong, the harm falls on a family, as it did on Laxmi Thapa and her son.
JusticeA birthmark that almost every Asian and Black baby has should be familiar to anyone who examines children. If doctors learn skin signs mostly on white skin, their mistakes fall more often on families who are not white.

Interview questions

  • What is safeguarding, and what is a doctor's role in it?
  • You notice a blue grey mark on a four month old's back, and nothing about a birthmark is written in the notes. What do you do?
  • Is it better to investigate ten innocent families than to miss one abused child?
  • How should medical schools teach students to recognise skin signs on different skin tones?
  • How would you speak to a parent you suspect of harming their child?
  • Why might a doctor make more mistakes with patients from some ethnic groups?
  • What should a hospital do after wrongly accusing a parent?

Sources

  1. NHSnhs.uk/…/birthmarks
  2. StatPearlsstatpearls.com/…/20374
  3. Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trusthampshirehospitals.nhs.uk/…/statement-mongolian-blue-spot
  4. Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Healthchildprotection.rcpch.ac.uk/…/bruising-systematic-review
  5. Clyde & Coclydeco.com/…/nice-updates-guidance-on-child-maltreatment

Photo: Mr Ignavy, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons, colour altered.

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