What happened to Jane’s baby in The Girl Before?

Major spoilers ahead of The Girl Before

The three leads of The Girl Before, the new mystery thriller on HBO Max, each have a tragedy they’re trying to navigate. For Edward, it’s the loss of his family, Emma was raped and has lost her sense of security and autonomy, and Jane suffered a stillbirth that she can’t put reason to beyond blaming herself.

What happened to Edward’s family is cut and dry. A freak accident involving a wall that the architect demolished himself is the cause of his grief. It’s a piece of his backstory and an explanation for his obsession with living a life that follows a rigid pattern.

There’s a tad bit of mystery with Emma’s assault though it’s pretty clear early on who raped her even though the series throws up smokescreens. The plot involving what happened to her is more centered on the investigation and how trauma can lead some people to falsely accuse others and build an entire case against them. But, as for Jane’s stillbirth, the mystery lies in what led to her baby’s death.

Surprisingly, The Girl Before doesn’t use this plot as a means of simply having Jane work through her grief. The series doesn’t hand wave the importance of finding out what led to the stillbirth. “These things happen” and “sometimes there’s no explanation” aren’t treated as valid answers to Jane’s questions and concerns over what happened.

The answers Jane receives allows her to move forward and eases her pain, but she has to conduct her own investigation to get the answers she should have been given by the hospital.

What happened to Jane’s baby in The Girl Before

After learning about Stillbirth Action, an organization that works to reduce the stillbirth rate in the country, Jane has a sit down with one of their representatives. She walks her through the discrepancy she found when looking at her medical records.

When Jane went to the hospital, she told the first nurse that she couldn’t feel Isabel. It should have been noted in her chart as reduced movement. However, the second nurse treated her for abdominal pain, and she was sent home. Clearly there wasn’t sufficient communication between the nurses and it could have been the reason Isabel died.

As explained by the Stillbirth Action representative, the kicking Jane felt from Isabel once she returned home could have been the baby in distress. While it’s true that her daughter may have passed even if the nurses had been in communication, Jane will never know if that’s the case.

Her one relief was that she isn’t responsible for the death of her child. She did what she was supposed to, it was the nursing staff’s negligence that led to this tragic outcome.

Part of The Girl Before‘s plot is Jane working through her grief and receiving answers about what happened to Isabel helps her. It also allows her to be open to having another child who we see at the end of series. His name is Toby and his presence in her life along with her work at Stillbirth Action and the memory of Isabel keeps her going.

All four episodes of The Girl Before are available to stream now on HBO Max.