to think this story cannot be true? Non English speaking mother did not know how to feed her baby causing brain damage, as the NHS did not provide a translator.

[WannaBeWonderWoman]

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5612889/Sri-Lankan-refugee-couple-set-multi-million-pound-NHS-payout.html

and if it is there must be something missing?

If there's not, this country has gone mad!

I feel really sorry for the mum, she must have been so confused. Of course she knew she had to feed her baby but she probably couldn’t communicate effectively how infrequently the baby was feeding. I speak perfect English and remember with great sadness some of the shit I had to deal with from the midwives who we’re breastfeeding nazis. So I can totally understand who she was hand gestured away and was unable to convey her concerns.
If she was in a hospital and the midwives didn’t check the baby was being fed properly then the payout is correct!

I dread to think how much NHS money is spent on interpreters etc. Even in my rural Scottish GP and local hospital have everything printed in umpteen languages, and signs about asking for interpreters etc. I've lived in other countries and it was my responsibility to learn the language or get someone to help me (and to emigrate to one of those countries I had to prove that I could speak their language in addition to the financial/medical stuff they wanted). Surely refugees - if genuine -can be better helped in countries nearer to their own, with similar culture/language.

I think the language thing is a bit of a red herring here. The midwives did not need an interpreter to see the baby was latching and feeding well. If they’d had an interpreter they would have known for certain he wasn’t, but they didn’t see him feeding so he shouldn’t have gone home.

I would tend to agree that had she been a bolshy English teenager (for example) with a baby failing to thrive they probably would have been a bit more Vigilent - they seem to have been tragically invisible , and unable to communicate

It’s not a snide remark . But given the fact that her child will need care for the rest of his life it’s a crying shame she can’t speak the language even now . She will be reliant on the NHS forever

That said - maybe she can - but maybe it’s not up to par for a court environment - which is understandable really

Reserve your anger for the tragic fuck up that was the NHS not for someone who has a different Opinion to you .

My extremely premature baby (26 weeks) was starved as a result of hospital negligence, and I'm English speaking, with three degrees and a lot of confidence. But nurses insisted that feeding a 1.5kg baby at 33 weeks gestation every four hours was perfectly fine. They'd ask 'has he had a full feed' after I'd tried breastfeeding, and if I said 'not sure, I think so', they wouldn't tube feed him for four more hours!!! He was so weak he was barely sucking anything. It took a fortuitous early (too early) discharge to a community medical team to get him gaining weight. He'd been literally starving. If this kind of stuff can happen to an educated 35-yo and her baby in a neonatal ITU, it can certainly happen to a non English-speaking 21yo in a standard postnatal ward.

The English-speaking husband tried repeatedly to communicate, stopfuckingshoutingatme.

He was dismissed by staff who apparently lacked basic education and training but made up for that with cartloads of arrogance.

My sister had something similar happen to her and her newborn. She had multiple reassurances from midwives that he was latching on and breastfeeding fine. Next day as they're being discharged she gets stopped by the chief breastfeeding midwife person and as they're chatting shes watching the baby and says "I'm not sure if he's really content or actually really unwell". Turns out it was the latter.

Moral is: if she hadn't been a very chatty English woman, it is easy to see how it could have happened. This is not unusual and needs to be addressed.

It is a shame the mother still can't speak fluent English, yes. Though not especially surprising, given that she's presumably been quite busy with her severely disabled child so may not have had much free time. But yes, of course it would be better all around if she spoke English. Would greatly improve her life. It's just not got anything to do with what happened.

And sure, it is true that if she'd been for example from a community where formula feeding from birth is the norm and breastfeeding isn't really thought of, rather than the reverse, this wouldn't have happened. But she wasn't, and it's not like exclusive breastfeeding at discharge is some rarity that hospitals aren't used to encountering. It's the majority of cases. And they should have checked the baby was actually feeding properly.

dc was very sleepy after birth.
would not wake to feed at all.
luckily in our case the midwife gave clear instructions to feed every 3 hours even if baby didn't wake and showed me (competently and sensitively) how to feed.

I can well imagine not having a competent midwife and not being able to understand ending badly.

And had the mother (and father) known a bit more they could have intervened too and just got in some formula

My fifth DC ended up losing 11% of her birthweight by ten days, and it was only because I inadvertently turned up for a pediatrician appointment for her a week early (US practice) that this was caught before it turned out to be a very serious problem for her.

I had four previous successes establishing breastfeeding under my belt. I knew how to breastfeed. All my older four babies knew how to do it too. DC5 whom I thought was doing fine was not doing fine. I was doing everything I had done with the others. She didn't have tongue tie, or thrush. Her latch was ok. She just wasn't using her tongue effectively, as far as anyone can guess.

She was producing wet diapers - not soaked but a little wet. She pooped, but there is a huge range of normal for that. If DC5 had not been seen and the issue turned around at ten days I suspect I - 37 years old and a mother of five - would not have identified a problem until it was too late.

Sobering, math.

I saw this happen in hospital. Fortunately I am and one of the women who brought the lunches knew one of the laughs that the father spoke so we could translate to him and he could translate to his wife.

It doesn't surprise me. I'm.amazed it doesn't happen more often tbh.
I had problems bf d's and know lots of other well educated and informed parents who had a wretched time establishing bf. A couple whose babies needed readmitting to hospital.
The midwives were able to help me bf, the bf counsellor didn't come up with anything to solve it.
BF doesn't always work and it would be easy to not know the signs of it going wrong if you hadn't read up on it.

Can I ask at what point people forget that google translate also exists?

Can I ask at what point people think that google translate is an appropriate substitute for proper midwifery and obstetric care?

Also this happened only a few months after I had my own son. I’m pretty willing to bet that as a mid 30s women in a decent professional job I had a better phone and online access than this woman would have had and my phone at the time wouldn’t have been capable of accessing google translate, although it was ostensibly a “smartphone”. iPhones etc were much more expensive and not as popular as they subsequently became.

This isnt surprising. The advice I got on breastfeeding from midwives while I was in hospital was woefully inadequate. It was only because my sister was feast feeding and was able to both teach and encourage me that i was able to manage it.

Google translate? For goodness sake. I used to work as a translator and wouldn't touch Google translate wih a bargepole - especially with a serious, complex, life-or-death issue like this.

I honestly can't believe some of the posts on mumsnet these days.

How would Google translate have helped in this instance?

I really wasn’t clear in where NHS care ended and parenting took over . I genuinely thought they got the baby out and packed you off -and good luck To you . hence my comments about the need to sue and legally who was responsible . I always assumed that feeding the baby was my job .

In this case we had a confused and probably traumatised young (very) woman and regardless of the legalities - her son was failed

This is the crux of the issue as mentioned by previous poster:
But the NHS is in crisis and the overworked and underfunded wards exist

I've not RTFT but until we solve the funding issue, more babies and mothers will suffer. The NHS today CANNOT afford to provide the level of care we all expect it to for everyone. If people can accept this, and the government accept this, we need to change the structure and payment of the NHS. We all should be shelling out much much £ out our personal pocket for decent medical care because the countries coffers aren't enough.

She thought she was feeding the baby. He kept crying, she kept trying to get help and was repeatedly fobbed off. She did her part.

Not a chance I'd do this. You have no security here and you're just feathering his nest with his mum!

Sorry, wrong thread