Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
News
Original poster

Baby left deaf and disabled by botched home birth

37 replies

AussieSim · 18/02/2008 06:08

Sad cautionary tale ...

OP posts:
belgo · 18/02/2008 07:01

I don't really understand. The baby was born, and how long afterwards the midwife failed to check the baby for jaundice?

From the artical, I fail to see how the fact that it was a home birth caused the midwife's mistake.

pooka · 18/02/2008 07:16

So it's the equivalent of the post-natal midwives in hospital or once you've been discharged not checking for jaundice.

Very very sad

ZippiBabes · 18/02/2008 07:22

it doesn't sound as though home birth was a material fact

franke · 18/02/2008 07:53

Very mischievous (sp) and misleading headline. What the poor baby has suffered is as a result of professional incompetence, not as a result of being born at home. Very sad.

needmorecoffee · 18/02/2008 07:57

funny how they don't hilight the babies born every day in hospital who are left disabled.
I know a fair few brain damaged by the hospital.

ZippiBabes · 18/02/2008 08:03

it is more oof a warning that jaundice is not as benign as we are led to believe surely

maybe that would be a more useful educational lesson

WideWebWitch · 18/02/2008 08:04

How sad. But the home birth part doesn't seem relevant. Very misleading headline, which probably should have read "midwife's failure to check for jaundice caused damage"

Being born at home didn't cause this, the midwife's mistake did by the sound of it.

belgo · 18/02/2008 08:09

yes, good point about jaundice being dangerous if untreated.

And good point needmorecoffee about babies being disabled after hospital births.

kiskideesameanoldmother · 18/02/2008 08:36

the bf 'advice' i got in hospital was so bad that it is a wonder that dd didn't end up in a similar position. she developed jaundice and no one told me that it was even more important to get her feeding very often and no one showed me how to wake a sleepy baby / or express and syringe feed her which is possibly why she developed jaundice in the first place. knowing what I know now, it makes me very angry.

Lulumama · 18/02/2008 08:52

very sad situation

however, the home birth is a red herring here.. this is to do with failure to check on the baby adequately post natally, nothing to do with the birth being 'botched'

Callisto · 18/02/2008 09:53

Agree with everyone else about the home birth bit being very misleading. The headline could as easily been: 'Baby left deaf and disbled after incompetant hospital staff failed to diagnose jaundice'.

OracleInaCoracle · 18/02/2008 10:13

a while ago there was the case of the JW mother (my friend) who died shortly after giving birth (really, really dont want to debate that again) and the headlines screamed that she had died because she had refused a transfusion. actually she had died because of gross incompetence and negligience on the part of the hospital. the media will always sensationalise stories like this and pounce on the one aspect that sets it apart from the "norm"

this is a very sad story and my heart goes out to all involved.

tortoiseSHELL · 18/02/2008 10:15

And there was that story about 'baby dying after breastfeed'.

Very sad stories, all of them.

SheherazadetheGoat · 18/02/2008 10:16

cautionary tale my arse the title of this thread is v. misleading and the op should have had more sense.

Disenchanted · 18/02/2008 10:17

Nothing to do with home birth,

everything to do with incompetance!

Not a cautionary tale regarding homebirth but could be applied to healthprofessionals not doing their job properly..

which is more likely to happen in a crowded, understaffed HOSPITAL rather than on a one to one homebirth basis!

Disenchanted · 18/02/2008 10:18

How many dozens of cases do you hear about stuff like this happening in hospitals!

IndigoMoon · 18/02/2008 10:18

nothing to do with the homebirth!!!! the baby had jaundice which was not recognised!

Disenchanted · 18/02/2008 10:19

Uhrggg, this has quite riled me!

RubyRioja · 18/02/2008 10:22

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Disenchanted · 18/02/2008 10:24

Yes but at non-independant homebirths there are 2 midwives.

TotalChaos · 18/02/2008 10:24

I think the home element is a complete red-herring - as with many straightforward births, mother and baby could be discharged after six hours, so reliant on the post-natal midwife home visits to pick up on this sort of issue.

SheherazadetheGoat · 18/02/2008 10:25

jaundice may not be immediatly apparent. this falls within the remit of follow up care. dd's jaundice was only picked up by midwife at home and also the fact that i have eyes and noticed she iwas not a normal colour helped.

Pruners · 18/02/2008 10:28

Message withdrawn

TigerFeet · 18/02/2008 10:29

this sort of sensationalist crap really makes me cross

where the baby was born has nothing to do with what happened afterwards

could easily have happened in a hospital

TotalChaos · 18/02/2008 10:30

I agree with pruners that we aren't getting the full story here, I would be amazed if there weren't any other medical professionals involved at some point prior to the disastrous jaundice levels.