'The midwife panicked and left the room - I put on gloves and delivered my daughter' says Banbury dad

Matt Gray said that after the baby’s heartbeat went down to 110 bpm the midwife disappeared and did not return for 15 minutes.

Baby Cleo – the couple’s fourth child - was born with the cord wrapped around her neck, but fortunately Mr Gray – a former ambulance technician – was able to release it.

By the time staff returned to the delivery room at the JR Oxford maternity unit, Cleo had been dried and was being cuddled by her shocked but relieved mother, Jo.

The Oxford University Hospitals Trust (OUH) this week apologised that care appeared to have fallen short of the high standards it sets. The OUH maternity unit is one of 12 nationwide under scrutiny in the Maternity & Neonatal Investigation, led by Baroness Valerie Amos.

As a high risk mother with several medical conditions Mrs Gray had to give birth at the JR. When she went into labour two weeks early on February 21 the JR accepted that the baby – her fourth - might be born quickly and allowed them to attend.

“We were put in a room. They took my blood pressure, pulse and temperature and I was five centimeters dilated. There were no beds available in the delivery suite so we had to wait. They started getting the room we were in ready and said that I could deliver there if I had to, as there was no room on delivery. It was like a waiting room. There was no equipment, gas and air or anything – just the bed,” she said.

“There was a lady next door giving birth. She got into difficulty and they had to rush her off. We heard a load of midwives come in and apparatus being wheeled past. When we walked past to the toilet, the room was obliterated, tools and equipment everywhere.

“I began to accept that we were going to have our baby in a side room, but they finally found a bed. I had a lovely midwife to start with. She was dancing to make me laugh and it was really good."

Mrs Gray said her midwife was needed elsewhere so a replacement came in.

"It went downhill from there; it was really bad. I think the first midwife had much higher training. The replacement seemed a very new midwife – she was very hands off. She lacked communication. She didn't talk to us, there was no reassurance.

"Within minutes I went into full blown delivery. I had my gas and air and things got moving. The midwife kept moving me. Apparently baby's heart rate kept changing but it was after every contraction, which is normal. But she started panicking, which in turn, made me panic.

"Her face kept dropping and she was constantly getting me to move, telling me that baby’s heart rate was dropping and it was getting dangerous. I was getting a panic attack because I'd had a traumatic birth before and nearly lost my son.

"Her heartbeat was going from 140 to 110. It was on the lower end of the scale, but nothing to panic about. But before we knew it, she’d left the room. We were left on our own. I knew straight away the head was being delivered and there was no midwife in the room, she'd gone.”

Matt Gray ran out to fetch the midwife, who returned, but left again 30 seconds later. She was gone for 10 – 15 minutes. Mrs Gray’s aunt was at her shoulder and holding her hand.

“After the midwife ran out a second time, I realised we were going to have to deliver the baby ourselves. I put some gloves on and minutes later, baby's was born.

"Once she was out, I saw the cord was actually around her neck. I managed to unwrap it but wasn’t able to get rid of the mucus. I cleaned her and dried her and gave her to Jo. They came in about two minutes afterwards and told me it was good that I’d put on gloves!”

Mrs Gray said: "It is terrifying. It could have gone so wrong. We couldn’t get to a call button which was behind the bed. They couldn’t tell us what she weighed at birth or what time it was, there was no clock in the room."

Mrs Gray said the midwife made her scream with pain pulling out the placenta.

She criticised the fact that the midwife had not read her notes and had not seen her history.

"We had the doctor and senior midwife in because we were angry and upset by what had happened. They said it was very unfortunate but everything was OK – no apologies, nothing - like this was completely normal!”

Mr Gray has raised a formal complaint with OUH and the Care Quality Commission.

The couple was kept for eight hours as staff performed tests on Cleo.

"It was all a mix up because of my medication. They hadn’t looked at my notes and thought she may be diabetic,” said Mrs Gray.

The couple took towels and scissors with them to Oxford as they felt the distance to the JR could mean the baby might be born on the way.

An OUH spokesman said: “We have heard from Jordan and Matthew Gray and are very sorry for the difficult childbirth experience they have described which appears to have fallen short of the high standards we set for ourselves.

"We are taking the issues they raise very seriously and will be carrying out a full investigation into what happened.

"We are unable to provide further detail while that investigation is underway but are committed to openness and transparency when sharing our full findings with Jordan and Matthew once the process has been completed.”