Lost

Timothy

Tuesday, 11 November 2008

After 8 days of no fetal movement our son tragically died at 39 weeks.

Another perfect pregnancy until 3rd November when ‘Mango’ stopped moving. I was 38 weeks. He went from been very active to nothing at all. I txt my Midwife who suggested I eat an ice block. Nothing changed and she was notified. On the 5th Nov she asked me to come to her clinic, which I did within the hour. She put the doppler on my tummy and found a regular heartbeat. She rocked his head in my pelvis to get a reaction from him and my son didn’t move at all to this manipulation. She recommended a scan and was booked in for the 6th November. My scan appeared fine. As soon as the scan was done I txt my Midwife to let her know that the results were normal and did she still want to see me Friday 7th for a CTG? She never replied and I assumed that she didn’t want to.

11th November. Still no movement since the 3rd Nov. My Midwife’s partner came to my home to conduct my 39 week check-up and meet me in case she was there for my birth. No fetal heartbeat was found. My son Timothy was delivered stillborn later that day. He had the cord wrapped tightly around his neck twice. He was perfect.

My Midwife was present during my delivery and I noticed her looking through my file. I had a scan at 32 weeks, which showed Timothy in the 97th percentile for weight. The scan on the 6th November recorded him at 50th percentile. It wasn’t until I was in labour that she pieced this information together so my midwife hadn’t looked at the 2 reports together.

I believe my son would be with me today if I had been given the correct level of care.

A CTG needed to be done on the Monday 3rd November. Timothy was my 3rd child and I knew that no fetal movement wasn’t good.

All these acts of neglect resulted in my son’s death. I put my faith in the system and the system let me down.

Yesterday the Health & Disability Commission found my Midwife breached the code. This means that she didn’t work to the standards of care that is required of her. She now has to undergo additional training and apologise. That’s her sentence. My sentence – the loss of my son for the rest of my life.

Deanna