Cleo Gray was delivered by her dad, Matt, with the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck
A dad has delivered his baby after a “panicked” midwife fled the hospital room during a high-risk labour.
Cleo Gray was born on February 21, at the John Radcliffe Hospital Women’s Centre in Oxford. She was delivered by her dad Matt after a “panicked” midwife left the room. The umbilical cord wrapped around Cleo’s neck.
Matt, a former ambulance technician, was able to unwrap the umbilical cord from baby Cleo’s neck, the Sun reported.
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Matt’s wife Jo was cradling their little one when staff returned to the room. Jo was seething and told the Banbury Guardian: “It is terrifying. It could have gone so wrong.”
Cleo is the couple’s fourth child and the labour was expected to progress quickly. The birth was deemed high-risk, as Jo has several medical conditions.
The Oxford University Hospitals Trust (OUH), which runs the hospital, apologised to the family.
Jo went to the John Radcliffe Hospital Women’s Centre after going into labour two weeks early. She said she had a “lovely” midwife initially, but a replacement came to attend to the birth after the initial midwife was needed elsewhere.
“It went downhill from there; it was really bad,” Jo said.
She said the new midwife seemed less experienced and was not communicative or reassuring.
Jo said went into delivery shortly after. She added that the midwife kept moving her and that the baby’s heart rate kept changing but it was after every contraction, which is considered normal.
“But she started panicking, which in turn, made me panic,” Jo added.
Jo said the midwife told her that the baby’s heart rate was dropping and it was getting dangerous. Jo added that she was going into a panic attack because she had a traumatic birth prior and nearly lost her son.
“Before we knew it, she’d left the room. We were left on our own.”
Matt ran out to fetch the midwife, who returned, but who left again shortly after.
They claim she was gone for 10 to 15 minutes.
“After she ran out a second time, I realised we were going to have to deliver the baby ourselves. I put some gloves on and minutes later, baby’s was born,” Matt said.
“Once she was out, I saw the cord was actually around her neck. I managed to unwrap it but wasn’t able to get rid of the mucus.”
“I cleaned her and dried her and gave her to Jo. They came in about two minutes afterwards and told me it was good that I’d put on gloves!” Matt said.
The couple said they could not reach the call button behind Jo’s bed to get help.
Jo said the staff did not apologise at the time, telling the couple the incident “was very unfortunate but everything was OK.”
A formal complaint with OUH and the Care Quality Commission.
A spokesman for OUH said the issues are being taken seriously and a full investigation into what occurred will be carried out.
“We are unable to provide further detail while that investigation is underway but are committed to openness and transparency when sharing our full findings with Jordan and Matthew once the process has been completed.”
The OUH maternity unit is one of the 12 being investigated in the National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation.
An interim report found deep-rooted issues in NHS maternity care.