A daunting incident occurred in the UK, where a “panicked” midwife left the couple to deliver their own baby, risking two lives of a mother and child at the same time.
It prompted the father to assist his wife in delivering their daughter Little Cleo Gray, who came into this world “minutes later”, with the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck.
Her father, Matt, a former ambulance technician, immediately assisted his wife, Jo, with the delivery, according to The Sun.
Fortunately, Matt was able to unwrap the cord from baby Cleo’s neck.
Jo described the situation to Banbury Guardian as “terrifying. It could have gone so wrong.”
Cleo was born on February 21, at the John Radcliffe Hospital Women’s Centre, which runs under The Oxford University Hospitals Trust (OUH).
Following the terrifying incident, the OUH issued an apology to the couple.
The birth was already considered high-risk due to medical conditions with mother.
Jo stated, “I had a lovely midwife to start with. She was dancing to make me laugh and it was really good,”
While recalling the incident, the mother stated, “It went downhill from there; it was really bad.”
Jo continued, “Within minutes I went into full blown delivery. The midwife kept moving me. Apparently the baby's heart rate kept changing but it was after every contraction, which is normal.”
“But she started panicking, which in turn, made me panic. Her face kept dropping and she was constantly getting me to move, telling me that baby’s heart rate was dropping and it was getting dangerous.”
Though the baby’s heart rate was 140 to 110, and nothing to panic about.
As per NSW Health, the normal baseline foetal heart rate range is 110 to 160 beats per minute.
The couple claimed that the midwife came after a few seconds, but went again and was gone for 10 to 15 minutes.
Matt stated, “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 was born.”
“Once she was safely delivered, the umbilical cord was seen to be wrapped around her neck.Though the husband unwrapped it, but he wasn’t able to get rid of the mucus.
Matt cleaned their daughter, dried her, and gave it to Joy.
An OUH spokesman stated,“We have heard from Jordan and Matthew Gray and are very sorry for the difficult childbirth experience they have described which appears to have fallen short of the high standards we set for ourselves.
Further details regarding the incident were not provided, as the investigation is currently underway.
