Closer eye on midwives urged

Photo / NZ Herald

A woman whose baby daughter was critically ill after a difficult birth wants independent midwives working in public hospitals brought more tightly under hospital control.

Laura, who does not want her surname published, said yesterday that her daughter was one of the 374 patients who experienced a "serious or sentinel" event in the year to June.

Laura spent three hours in the second stage of labour in Wellington Hospital in July last year, trying to push her daughter out, before the midwife handed the case over to the hospital staff.

They quickly delivered the baby by attaching a ventouse suction device to her scalp.

She had to be resuscitated and was taken to the neonatal unit suffering the effects of a shortage of oxygen to the brain.

The baby is now free of any lasting effects, but because of her bad experience Laura wants changes made at the hospital: "Women have a false view that giving birth in a hospital puts them under hospital supervision."

Interaction between independent midwives and hospital staff often happened informally, but this was insufficient, Laura said.

"A policy needs to be developed that gives more power to hospitals to intervene in births without having to be invited."

The hospital's serious event review found that communication between the midwife and hospital registrar was "not optimal".