'Let the babies live'

A Porirua family whose first son died during delivery by an independent midwife wants to stop others suffering the same "disaster".

The family "watched in horror" as the baby struggled during a breech birth at Kenepuru Hospital's maternity unit last month.

They plan to complain to the health and disability commissioner, Wellington doctor Ate Moala says. The death has already prompted Health Minister David Cunliffe to announce a review of the capital's maternity services.

Dr Moala said the baby's Tongan family contacted her "in desperation" soon after the death. She e-mailed politicians and health officials, asking them to "Let the babies live!".

That e-mail outlines a "brief history of the tragic event", as she said it was described by the baby's mother, a registered nurse.

The boy, who was 10 days overdue, died from asphyxia during a water birth on June 21, it says. The midwife, a recent graduate, failed to diagnose the breech birth. Her midwife supervisor looked on during the birth and "assured the duty midwife that she was doing well".

No doctors were called till the baby was delivered and not breathing.

Dr Moala told The Dominion Post yesterday that the boy weighed four kilograms and was "a beautiful, strong baby". "Not many babies can struggle for 20 minutes like that."

The family wanted to bring the case to light "for the sake of other families and for other babies".

Midwives should not be the sole providers of maternity services, she said.

Mr Cunliffe announced a Government review of Wellington maternity services on Tuesday, saying Capital and Coast District Health Board's investigation into a baby's death had been hampered by the midwife not being its employee.

Capital and Coast director of women's health Delwyn Hunter said yesterday that the Health Ministry's maternity facility access agreement stated "facilities shall not inquire into or specify matters relating to the operation or administration of the practitioner's practice".

The DHB investigated all unexpected baby deaths in its facilities. "The participation of self-employed lead maternity carers in these reviews is voluntary, and not all practitioners choose to participate."

But College of Midwives chief executive Karen Guilliland said a "variety of mechanisms other than employment" existed to allow DHBs to investigate. The college was unaware of systemic problems with maternity services in the Wellington region, she said.

Dr Moala recommended in her e-mail that obstetricians and GPs be "encouraged to pick up the antenatal, obstetrics and postnatal care again" and midwife training and supervision be reviewed.

Those recommendations are similar to those Wellington coroner Garry Evans made in 2005 in his reports on the deaths of babies Saskia Marama Swagerman-Fugle and Cameron Elliot after undiagnosed breech births at home.

National Party health spokesman Tony Ryall said Labour had ignored "repeated warnings" about a national maternity crisis. The Wellington review was "too little too late".

- © Fairfax NZ News