Couple left to deliver boy alone in hospital

Rachael and Dean Shepherd with son Deago. Photo / Christine Cornege

When his pregnant wife said she needed to push and the hospital midwife had disappeared, dairy farmer Dean Shepherd did what he had to.

He yanked on the help cord, and then delivered the baby boy himself, after untangling the umbilical cord.

Mr Shepherd said yesterday that he and his wife Rachael were on their own for at least seven minutes and although all had turned out well, the birth could have easily gone bad.

The Te Awamutu couple plan to make a formal complaint to Waikato Hospital, where their baby Deago was born over a toilet around 1.15am on March 12.

The baby was overdue, Mrs Shepherd had high blood pressure and labour had been medically induced. She had a history of rapid births with her first two children. She was having a shower in the ensuite off her room around 1am.

"Rachael was starting to get dizzy," Mr Shepherd said. "I was worried she was going to fall over.

"She said something didn't feel right. She wasn't sure if she needed to push. She said that and then the midwife said, 'I'm going to go and ring your [independent] midwife'."

The midwife left and Mrs Shepherd sat on the toilet.

"She said, 'I've got to push'. When she said that - there's a string buzzer - I yanked that. I thought emergency was three times, so I pulled it three times.

"Rachael said, 'Can you see the head?' I said, 'You've got to stand up a bit, I can't see'. She did a squat and stood back, above the toilet."

Mrs Shepherd told him to check the umbilical cord. Mr Shepherd noticed the baby had gone "really blue" and found the cord was looped under the chin and around his neck. Mr Shepherd gently manipulated the cord free and his wife pushed again.

"I caught baby's head into my hand and guided him down my arm.

"Then I heard someone behind me say, 'Oh gosh', and it was the [hospital] midwife. She had just come back then."

The birth was followed by difficulties with the placenta which had to be removed surgically.

The hospital is investigating the care provided to Mrs Shepherd.

Hospital spokeswoman Mary Anne Gill said pulling the cord in the ensuite would have shown up outside her room and in the delivery suite.

There was also an emergency buzzer, activated by touching a small screen on the wall, but it seemed that it had not been used, she said.

A Waikato DHB spokeswoman offered "sincere apologies to the Shepherd family that they felt we were unable to meet their needs and left them feeling unsupported".