Mother of baby who died at homebirth says midwives need more training
The story Mother warns of home-birth risks appears on the New Zealand website stuff.co.nz. This is the case that I wrote about in a recent post, Another baby dies a preventable death at homebirth. The baby died after homebirth midwives failed to properly monitor the baby, failed to react to fetal distress, failed to call for back up in a timely fashion, and could not perform an expert resuscitation. According to today's article:The mother of a baby who died during a home birth in Nelson says first-year midwives should not be lead maternity carers and first-time mothers should be better informed of the risks.
Lynne Jamieson, now of Queenstown, said midwives should be better trained in communicating with mothers and should also receive nursing training.
Jamieson's baby, Erik, died in July 2005 after complications during his home birth saw his heartbeat slow and stop.
A Health and Disability Commission report into the birth censured the two midwives involved – lead midwife Lana Kroll, now living in Canada, and back-up midwife Hannah Mae, who has now left the profession.
Commissioner Ron Patterson said Kroll failed to provide Jamieson with reasonable care and skill, failed to document the progress of the labour adequately and did not communicate with Jamieson when complications arose.
Paterson said Kroll's inaction in calling specialist help when she could not detect a heartbeat deprived Erik of a key opportunity to save his life.
Jamieson said new mothers should be aware their midwife may not be the one who looks after them during pregnancy and should be informed of all of the risks involved in birth...
"I had three women attending the baby but, because they were so inexperienced in emergency situations, they did not function well and could have got Erik and I to hospital sooner.
"The Midwifery Council need to look at situations like this and take them more seriously," said Jamieson...
Jamieson said she had never heard from the Midwifery Council after Erik's death and wanted to know what it was doing to ensure a similar incident did not occur.
Jamieson recently received a letter of apology from Kroll on a letterhead suggesting she was working as a midwife in Canada.
In the letter Kroll told Jamieson she had reviewed her personal practice in light of the care she gave and had learnt a lot from her experience.
Kroll said she regretted failing to update their conversation about hospital transfer.
"Apologies aside, it will never bring Erik back," said Jamieson.
"This will be with me for the rest of my life and is the only memory we have of Erik.
Labels: homebirth death
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