Kings college hospital and Albany midwives.

[DiazePam]

www.kch.nhs.uk/news/archive/2009/albany-midwifery-practice/

Kings college hospital has severed its links with the Albany midwives practice.

A quote from their news release says

''We have become concerned about the safety record of the practice in comparison with the Trust?s overall maternity safety record. Our records show that whilst Albany delivered babies for 4% of all King?s births, those births accounted for 42% of our full term babies born with Hypoxic Ischaemic Encephalopathy, a condition whereby brain damage may be caused by a lack of oxygen to the brain, at or around the time of delivery.''

If that is true it is absolutely shocking and suggestive of serious problems.

I would never allow any non NHS employed midwife near me ever in a million years. This kind of story does nothing to change my mind!

The midwives from the Albany are employed by the NHS.

suggest you read this

and this

42% of term babies born with HIE actually equates to 2 or 3 separate cases which while tragic does not mean all equivelant babies born at kings are unaffected. There is a lot more to this than the single paragraph you have quoted.

HIE is difficult to diagnose and is often not clear whether resulting from birth trauma or other pre-birth factors.