Baby left deaf and disabled by botched home birth

[AussieSim]

Sad cautionary tale ...

I don't think you can get non-independent home births in Australia. DH's cousin is a health service midwife and told me I was lucky to have one here, as they're not offered in Australia.

Agree the title is misleading. It's about negligence of the jaundice and could have happened at a hospital.

nothing to do with homebirth.poor baby and poor parents.i think by the misleading title the article is partly blaming the parents because of the choice of birth place.that midwife could have worked in a hospital and done just as bad a job.

is australia not very big on homebirth?

Agree, bog all to do with homebirth.

Isn't jaundice blindingly obvious though? It certainly was with DS2 and his wasn't severe.

Surely if the jaundice was that severe as SD said it would be obvious not only from the yellow appearance but also as it causes the baby to be excessively sleepy and a very poor feeder? I also reckon because of this there must have been other medical professionals involved along the line that we have not been made aware of.

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sometimes it depends on the baby's skin tone as to how obvious the jaundice is. But the midwife should be well trained to recognise the signs of jaundice in all circumstances.

I imagine that there is a lot more to this story.

Both DS2 & BabyDragon are white - I noticed their jaundice most clearly because the whites of their eyes were yellow. Skin can be deceiving as it can look just tanned, even on a white baby.

My dd was severely jaundiced.

I nagged and nagged the midwife about it for days as she was very sleepy, not feeding ,yellow eyes etc. As a 3rd time mum I knew it wasn't right. Eventually I stripped her off in front of her and she was so shocked she did an immediate blood test. We never got the results but she was admitted anyway, when they finally found the results she was rushed into special care as the score was extremely high.

The consultants were v cross it had been allowed to get so high. It was only when she was in special care that we were told how serious jaundice can be. Anybody not sure, insist on a blood test and just keep on nagging.

It still makes me cross that if I hadn't insisted that she actually be examined properly my dd could have very easily been left brain damaged.

Fuck all to do with the fact the baby was born at home. The article is hugely misleading - you don't check for jaundice 'during' a home birth, for a start...

It's not a cautionary tale, it's just sensationalist reporting.

Jaundice isn't always blindingly obvious but I assume it would have been clear at some point, if it got bad enough to have that effect on the baby. But unless the baby had some underlying medical problem which predisposed it to jaundice within the first 24 hours, it would not have been apparent 'during' the homebirth.

Doesn't take away from her negligence later, of course, but gaaaaaah.

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A few of you are right that homebirths are very rare in Australia though probably on the increase.

IME for a normal delivery you stay in hospital 3 days. During those 3 days not only does your Obstetrician visit you but a pedeatrician (sp) gives the baby a thorough going over - ds2 was seen at 40 hours old and again at 48 hours. It was noted at the first check that he had jaundice. As my DS1 had had issues with Jaundice I was a bit anxious but was reassured that as he was a big baby (9,3) that I shouldn't worry. I still took him back to the hospital the evening after we had been discharged as I was concerned about his bilirubin levels. During those 3 days you are seen by many nurses and midwives. There are standard tests that are completed on their hearing as well.

At 2 weeks old a midwife visited me in my home - it probably would have been sooner if he had been my first - she noted that his jaundice was improving.

I am guessing that this was probably a first baby and that the midwife was supposed to keep in close contact after the homebirth as the normal checks and balances of a hospital birth were not in place and that she failed to do so - by her own admission it would seem. Sorry I was a bit short on my OP, but I was running out the door.

I had midwives from my group practice visiting every day for the first week after dd was born, then again a couple of times before she was discharged from midwife care.
With ds, I left the hospital less than 3 hours after he was born. We were visited the next day and then probably another three times before he was discharged. Not always the same midwife. While dd was seen by a paed before we left (stayed overnight) ds wasn't, but was seen by the midwife responsible for post-natal checks.

This is, as far as I am aware, fairly standard, and would apply to hospital AND home births in the UK.