I'm the dad of a 5-week-old who has CF and a stoma bag, following an operation to remove a blockage. We are told by the CF team that the operation is fairly rare, as typically this blockage is removed without an op. We now think this could have been avoided had a particular midwife done a better job.
Our daughter was born at a birthing centre one Thursday at about 2pm, and brought home that night at 10pm even though she found it hard to keep her food down. We were told this can happen, but not to worry too much as a midwife would come to ours and do a check at 24 hours. The following day a different midwife arrived 11.30am and spoke to the mum, asking if our daughter had had a number 1 & 2. She was told that our baby had continued to vomit some of her food after each feed, hadn't yet done a poo but had done a bit of a funny coloured wee. The midwife said this wasn't out of the ordinary, made an appointment to return on Monday, and said to ring if we were worried. Well, we were worried - because the baby continued to vomit after each feed that weekend - but we didn't ring the midwife or attend a hospital since she said being sick wasn't uncommon. And we put the non-poo down to the fact that although she had consumed some of the breastmilk, she hadn't yet had enough to make a poo. We also knew she would be returning on Monday, so hung on.
There was another reason why we didn't ring that weekend. I knew a friend of a friend who was a midwife, so had them text about our problem. You know, second opinion and all that. She reiterated that it was not uncommon for babies to vomit for a few days, and not to worry too much about not pooing but to wait and see what our midwife had to say on Monday (since this time she has admitted that she was erroneously under the impression that our baby had already had a dark poo in the birthing centre, or would have told us to go to the hospital).
A different person came on Monday and asked the same questions - and got the same answers. She then disappeared and we later got a phone call from the midwife who had delivered the baby. She said we needed to take the baby to the hospital right away, as by 24 hours she should have done a really dark poo, so now, 4 days later, she possibly had a blockage (that was the first time we knew anything about a blockage).
At hospital they decided to operate, but only after five days of trying to remove the blockage without going under the knife (during which time they starved our daughter of food - but gave her fluids - and her mum had to sit there and listen to her cries for food 24-7).
Now we have to constantly listen to our daughter's screams whenever we change her stoma bag, and we can't help but think the original midwife who came on the Friday is in some ways responsible. Apparently if there is no dark poo after 24 hours, you have to go to hospital. We weren't told this, and so instead of the hospital having to remove 24 hours of food blockage, they had to remove four-days worth, hence the op. Note that the birthing centre's line is that the midwife came 22.5 hours after the birth not 24 hours, so she didn't give incorrect advice! They also have conveniently forgotten which midwife it is.
I feel like someone in authority should speak with this midwife, who really should have told us to go to hospital. Sure, we could have rang the birthing centre that weekend or taken the baby to the hospital (and don't think we are not consumed with guilt about that) but we are lay people who know no better when it comes to the technicalities of birth. Your thoughts?