A mother, whose child was stillborn, has added her voice to support the serious concerns raised in BBC Panorama about maternity services at Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Trust.
During her pregnancy, Emma Ziff, who was 45 at the time, was refused an elective caesarean section by staff at Gloucestershire Royal hospital on multiple occasions despite raising concerns about her age, that the conception was via IVF and that this would be the first time she gives birth.
After her initial request was refused, the midwife advised that if Emma had not given birth by 40 weeks, she would have a Consultant review to arrange a c-section. Sadly, this appointment was never booked and the Consultant review therefore never happened.
Emma attended the birth unit at 40+1 weeks with contractions. As the contractions were irregular, she was sent home on two separate occasions and re-admitted the next day when she was in pain and finding it difficult to cope. Sadly, the midwife was unable to find the baby’s heartbeat and advised Emma that her baby had died. Emma gave birth to her stillborn baby son, Otis, at 40+3 weeks.
The post-mortem confirmed that his death was caused by a lack of oxygen reaching Emma’s son in the womb.
Emma, who lived in Gloucester at the time of her pregnancy but has since moved to Spain, said: “I’m choosing to share my story to raise awareness of the issues around midwives and Consultants listening to mums. I want to raise awareness and make sure lessons are learnt so it does not happen to others. Had my wishes been listened to, heard and actioned by a doctor reviewing my care then the outcome would have been very different.”
Claire Stoneman, the Medical Negligence Expert from Enable Law who represented Emma, said “This was a tragically sad case as mum was already 45 years old when she first conceived. Pregnancy as you get older has higher risks in relation to stillbirth and mum realised this which is why she asked to have a C section. All too often I find that mums aren’t listened to in relation to their care and treatment plans. If she had been listened to in this case her baby would be with her now. No amount of money can ever compensate our client for the loss of her son. Hopefully, lessons have also been learnt to ensure this does not happen again so that the litigation process has enabled this positive change.”
The BBC documentary will air this evening on BBC One and will look at the challenges nationally in maternity, with a specific focus on Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust’s maternity services. It includes the tragic deaths of two babies and a mother and interviews midwives and families.
In a statement, Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said: “We are deeply sorry that failings in our care led to these tragic deaths and how devastating this has been for those families.”
“We are determined to learn and change when things go wrong. As a result of our internal and independent investigations we have made significant improvements to our maternity services in the past three years.”
“We have a new and expanded maternity leadership team and have increased the number of midwives and doctors into the service to support women and babies, alongside a range of other safety improvements, including an enhanced risk assessment process and extra daily staffing reviews on wards.”
“The significant changes made have been driven by our staff, working closely with families and communities, to ensure everyone has a voice so that we provide the best and safest care.”
Panorama will air on BBC One at 8pm and can also be viewed now on BBC iPlayer.