Gemma Lomas said she had trusted NHS workers who were guiding her home birth and that her daughter Poppy, who died a week after being born, ‘should have had the safest possible start in her life’
A devastated mum whose baby died just a week after being born said she had put her trust in NHS professionals who guided her home birth – but was not told about the risks involved.
Poppy Hope Lomas was just seven days old when she died at University College Hospital in central London after suffering complications during a home birth which mum Gemma Lomas said she was encouraged to have.
An inquest at Barnet Coroner’s Court in north London heard the newborn likely died from a severe hypoxic ischaemic brain event, suffered in the 30 minutes before her birth, which occurs when the brain lacks oxygen. The court was told Ms Lomas was failed by the NHS trust which did not make her aware of the risks involved with a natural home birth.
Speaking to reporters outside the court today, the mum said she had “trusted the professionals who were guiding us,” adding Poppy “should have had the safest possible start in her life”.
“Today’s finding confirmed what we have lived every single day since losing our precious daughter Poppy,” she said. “We came here for the truth because Poppy’s life mattered and because she deserves to be remembered for more than the circumstances of her death. Nothing will ever bring her back but hearing the truth today acknowledged means everything to us.
Ms Lomas said she hopes Poppy’s story will encourage changes to be made so that “no other family has to endure the pain that we will carry for the rest of our lives.”
She added: “Poppy was our daughter, she was loved beyond words and she will never be forgotten.”
Poppy’s planned home delivery was carried out with Edgware Midwives – the designated home birth team at Barnet Hospital which is part of the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust.
Ms Lomas said on Monday that Alice Boardman, who was head midwife at Edgware Midwives and present at Poppy’s birth, actively encouraged her to have a vaginal birth after Caesarean (VBAC) at home.
She said: “I was encouraged to do what we did. I would have never made decisions to harm myself or my baby in any capacity.
“So I think moving forward for women and, you know, families, having the right information presented to them, in a good way, will make the decisions easier.”
In a written statement read out to the coroner on Tuesday, the inquest heard that midwife Sasha Field, who was at Poppy’s birth, said an ambulance should have been called when she heard the baby’s heart rate slow down after a contraction – around 90 minutes before she was born.
Mr Walker said: “To not discuss with Ms Lomas the decelerations and a decision to return to hospital is likely to be a really serious failure to provide basic medical care to Ms Lomas.”
The trust agreed to support Poppy’s mother Gemma Lomas with an “unsafe home delivery that was against medical advice” and failed to address “an accumulation of risk factors,” Senior coroner Andrew Walker said.
Mr Walker told the inquest: “The home delivery midwives worked against a background of an accumulation of risk factors including a prolonged rupture of the membranes without antibiotic cover, two decelerations around one and a half hours before delivery, the slow delivery and poor condition at birth.
“There was a failure to recognise and appropriately manage these risk factors.” He added this resulted in an “absence or delay in interventions and actions”. Poppy died days later on October 26, 2022, as a result.
