Hospital admits causing baby boy’s stillbirth after midwives stopped monitoring heart rate – South London News

A woman whose baby was stillborn due to mistakes made by a midwife during labor has said she is “appalled” by the lack of compassion shown.

Charlotte Warner, from Streatham, was 23 when she lost her baby boy, CJ, after midwives at St. George Hospital he did not notice that he was deprived of oxygen during labor. They stopped taking regular heart readings despite the induced labor.

Mrs Warner, now 29, said: “The pain of losing a child like we did never goes away.”

An investigation into the serious care incident at Tooting Hospital in May 2018 found that guidelines were not followed.

As part of a legal case – led by medical specialists Hudgell Solicitors – St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust admitted steps could have been taken to ensure CJ was born alive and well.

Mrs Warner said: “I expressed several times how much pain I was in but was reassured that everything was as it should be.

“Then all of a sudden a midwife said she couldn’t find a heartbeat.

“Shortly after he was stillborn, one of the doctors made a comment to me that I could still have more children as I was only 23.

“It almost negated the devastating impact of losing CJ.

“We felt completely let down by the staff and that was before we realized their mistakes cost him his life.”

Ms Warner said she suffered from depression after losing the baby and was sometimes suicidal, often feeling guilty in her moments of happiness.

The trust offered a full apology to Ms Warner and agreed an out-of-court settlement for damages.

A recent All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) inquiry into traumatic births has called for a review of maternity and postnatal care in the UK after finding that poor care is “tolerated too often as business as usual”.

Birth Trauma Inquiry heard harrowing evidence from more than 1,300 women and found services of “shockingly poor quality”. Some women said they were left in blood-soaked sheets, while others said their children suffered life-changing injuries due to medical negligence.

APPG has called on the Government to publish a National Maternity Improvement Strategy, led by a new Maternity Commissioner who will report to the Prime Minister.

Theresa Greenwood, registered midwife and director of clinical support at Hudgell Solicitors, said: “Maternity units up and down the country are operating with fewer staff than they should.

“It has been identified by numerous inquiries over the last ten years that low staffing levels are critical to improving maternity services.”

Now a mother of three young children, Ms Warner said each pregnancy and birth brought complicated, mixed emotions that she and her partner Charlie struggled to cope with.

Ms Greenwood added: “Experiences of trauma have consequences, there is a knock-on effect.

“It could mean women decide not to have another child, it can affect their well-being and it can also affect their relationships with a partner or other children.”

A spokesman for St George’s Hospital said: “We are sorry that the care Mrs Warner received did not meet the high standards we expect and we would like to offer our sincere and unreserved apologies to Mrs Warner and her family. We extend our deepest sympathies to all.

“We are constantly striving to improve the quality of the services we provide and a comprehensive internal investigation has identified areas for improvement within our midwifery services. We have now implemented these improvements, including connecting heart readings to a central monitoring system and performing individualized assessments.”

Pictured above: Charlotte Warner with her partner Charlie and baby CJ (Image: Charlotte Warner)

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