Cleo Gray was born on February 21 with the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck after being delivered by her dad Matt at John Radcliffe Hospital Women’s Centre in Oxford
A dad was left to deliver his baby after a midwife fled the room.
Cleo Gray was born with the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck, after a “panicked” midwife left the room. She was delivered by her dad Matt, a former ambulance technician, on February 21, at the John Radcliffe Hospital Women’s Centre in Oxford.
Matt was able to unwrap the cord from baby Cleo’s neck after the high-risk delivery, the Sun reported.
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Staff returned to the room to find Matt’s wife Jo cradling their little one. Jo was seething and told the Banbury Guardian: “It is terrifying. It could have gone so wrong.”
Cleo is Jo and Matt’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.
“I had a lovely midwife to start with. She was dancing to make me laugh and it was really good,” Jo said.
But as the midwife was needed elsewhere, a replacement came to attend to the birth.
“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.
“Within minutes I went into full blown delivery,” Jo said. 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.
She said the midwife told her that the baby’s heart rate was dropping and it was getting dangerous.
“So I was going into a panic attack because I’d had a traumatic birth before and nearly lost my son.”
“But 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 say 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.”
The couple have since filed a formal complaint with OUH and the Care Quality Commission.
An OUH spokesman said: “We are taking the issues they raise very seriously and will be carrying out a full investigation into what happened.”
“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.
The report flagged that the system “is not working for women, babies and families, or for staff”.
