Poor maternity care at Hull Royal Infirmary risked babies' lives, say mums

Maternity services at Hull Royal Infirmary have recently been described in a damning report by the health watchdog as chaotic, unsafe and not fit for purpose. Three mothers, who claim staff missed signs of life-threatening conditions that could have killed them or their babies, have spoken to the BBC about their harrowing experiences at the hospital.

One woman, a BBC journalist who does not want to be named, said she knew her newborn son was seriously ill within minutes of giving birth at the infirmary in 2021.

"As soon as they handed him to me, I noticed something was wrong. He was panting and his breathing wasn't right," she said.

Over the course of an hour, she said her concerns were dismissed by the newly-qualified midwife who said his breathing was "completely normal".

"She kept reassuring me over and over that's how babies breathe. I felt like I was drowning surrounded by lifeguards," she said.

But after being examined by a more experienced midwife, the baby was rushed to intensive care and diagnosed with potentially fatal sepsis.

"It was like time stood still. The midwife ripped him off me and she slammed an oxygen mask on his face, called the crash team and he was taken away to the neonatal intensive care unit.

"The anger I felt was overwhelming because I'd been saying for nearly an hour he was seriously ill. I was right and he had sepsis."

A few months after her son's birth, she read about an inquest into the death of a four-day-old baby who had sepsis and was born at Hull Royal Infirmary.

A coroner found that midwives had failed to respond to his infection quickly enough.

"My blood ran cold because it was exactly the same circumstances that happened to me and that baby died. I thought they clearly haven't learned anything," she said.

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Source: BBC News, 6 November 2023