Banbury area woman calls for Horton maternity unit to be reinstated claiming birth 'could have been fatal' - off duty midwife friend delivered her baby

Carly Roberts said she thought the downgrade of the Horton to a midwife-led unit should be reconsidered for the safety of mothers and babies in north Oxfordshire.

Her call came after a frightening birth experience in which her daughter, Darcie - her fourth child - was delivered by an off-duty midwife who was a personal friend.

"I think upgrades for the Horton and other local hospitals need to be reconsidered for the safety of mothers and babies," she said. "I want people to hear about the way I was treated at the JR and for my midwife to get recognition for the exceptional care she provided.

"The way I was treated by staff at the JR was not acceptable. They are over worked and understaffed because local hospitals are being downgraded to midwife-led."

The Oxford University Hospitals Trust (OUH) said they have undertaken an initial investigation and offered to meet Ms Roberts. Keep the Horton General said it will fight to the bitter end for the Horton Maternity Unit to be returned to a full obstetric service.

Ms Roberts has nominated her community midwife for a Daisy Award - giving recognition to exceptional nurses and midwives.

Ms Roberts' childbirth started on Valentine's Day. She rang Chipping Norton Birth Centre at 1.40pm and was advised to call the JR Maternity Assessment Unit (MAU). The MAU asked for contact details and promised to call back, but failed to ask the reason for the call or for Ms Roberts' address.

"I feel this is very important as people could be travelling five minutes or 40, which was the case for me," she said. "It took them till 5pm to return my call by which time I was already at the JR. As I didn't seem to be getting any reaction from the JR I called the ambulance at 2.30pm.

"The operator was fantastic and spoke me and my partner through everything until she could get an ambulance dispatched. However this took until 4pm to arrive. Things started to progress really quickly while waiting. My waters broke around 3.30pm and I panicked."

Ms Roberts asked her partner, Matthew Thomas, to ring the on-call midwife. That department also said they would get someone to call back. The couple was still waiting for an ambulance to be dispatched.

Ms Roberts decided to call a friend - who is a community midwife - on her personal number. The midwife was off duty but was with Ms Roberts within five minutes. The ambulance arrived shortly afterwards. An examination showed Ms Roberts needed to be transferred to Oxford immediately. She had arranged for a pool birth.

"When we got there, my midwife friend was told there were no midwives available. Staff there had absolutely no idea how to set the pool room up. They didn't know how to work the bed and it had to be changed for another one; they didn't know how to plug the bath and the community midwife and Matthew had to work out how to do it; they didn't know how to dim the lights or work any of the equipment in the room," said Ms Roberts.

"They didn't know how to set the temperature for the pool. The lady filling it made it way too cold for a baby to be born in and when Matthew questioned it she said it was the regulation temperature. When the community midwife checked she said it was way too cold and asked if they had a thermometer and they said they didn't have one.

"The community midwife wasn't relieved once, after a number of times asking, if only to change into some uniform. They said they were too short staffed and that she didn't need another midwife present until the baby's head was out.

"I am disgusted with the way she was treated when she wasn't even supposed to be working. She went above and beyond to make sure everything went smoothly and was the way I wanted my birth. If she hadn't been available I could have had my baby at home."

However what was worse was that Ms Roberts then had a haemorrhage, losing nearly a litre of blood. "If this had happened at home it could have been fatal," she said.

Sam Foster, Chief Nursing Officer at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We aim to give women the best possible care during their pregnancy and birth, so we are saddened to hear the account of this woman’s experience.

"Like the rest of the region, we are doing our very best to maintain choice for the women of Oxfordshire but have had to suspend some services on a temporary basis. The senior midwives and senior doctors review our services on a daily basis to ensure that safe care can be provided across the county.

“We have made contact with the patient and, while we are unable to comment on individual experiences, we have undertaken an initial investigation into the concerns raised and have offered to meet with her to hear her feedback in more detail so we can identify any learning for the future.”

Ms Roberts said she had not heard from the Trust or been given any feedback.

Charlotte Bird, for Keep the Horton General, said: "Sadly this will continue to be the status quo whilst obstetrics is focused on the 'one size fits all' way of centralising the service.

"Massive under-investment in staff and resources leading to smaller, more personalised units being closed has put immense pressure on the remaining large units. It is a tragic state of affairs and sadly was engineered to be so. KTHG will fight to the bitter end to bring the much needed, vital service back to Banbury."