\n<\/p>\n
A mother who lost her baby a week after an \u201cunsafe\u201d home birth that went against medical advice was failed by the NHS, an inquest has found.<\/p>\n
Poppy Hope Lomas was seven days old when she died at University College hospital in London on 26 October 2022 after complications during a home birth that, according to her mother, was encouraged by midwives at Barnet hospital.<\/p>\n
An inquest into Poppy\u2019s death at Barnet coroner\u2019s court concluded that she probably died from a lack of oxygen reaching her brain in the 30 minutes before she was born.<\/p>\n
The senior coroner Andrew Walker said the Royal Free London NHS foundation trust had agreed to support Poppy\u2019s mother, Gemma Lomas, with an \u201cunsafe home delivery that was against medical advice\u201d and had failed to address \u201can accumulation of risk factors\u201d.<\/p>\n
After the inquest concluded on Thursday, Lomas said outside the court: \u201cNothing will ever bring her back, but hearing the truth today acknowledged means everything to us.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe trusted the professionals who were guiding us,\u201d she said, adding that she hoped lessons would be learned.<\/p>\n
She previously told the inquest that midwives had actively encouraged her to have a vaginal birth at home, despite the risks because she had given birth to her first daughter, Willow, by caesarean section in 2018.<\/p>\n
Guidance from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists says vaginal births after caesarean (VBACs) should take place in a \u201csuitably staffed and equipped delivery suite\u201d and \u201cwith resources available for immediate caesarean delivery\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was encouraged to do what we did,\u201d Lomas said. \u201cI would have never made decisions to harm myself or my baby in any capacity.\u201d<\/p>\n
In England and Wales, about one in 50 births take place at home, but they are recommended only for low-risk pregnancies.<\/p>\n
Last year, experts told the Guardian that mothers must be given clearer warnings on the potentially fatal dangers of giving birth at home.<\/p>\n
This came after a coroner ruled that a mother and daughter from Greater Manchester had died after a home birth owing to \u201ca gross failure\u201d in care. The inquest heard that the dangers of a home birth had not been fully explained, and phrases such as \u201cout of guidance\u201d had been favoured, rather than \u201cagainst medical advice\u201d.<\/p>\n
In his closing remarks at the inquest into Poppy\u2019s death, the coroner also flagged concerns about the use of the expression \u201cout of guidance\u201d. He made recommendations that multi-disciplinary meetings involving the parents should be held when they choose \u201can unsafe birth at home\u201d, and that they should sign a consent form clearly explaining the risks.<\/p>\n
A Royal Free London NHS foundation trust spokesperson offered their \u201cheartfelt condolences\u201d to Poppy\u2019s family.<\/p>\n
\u201cFollowing an investigation, we have introduced a number of measures to improve care for women delivering their baby at home,\u201d they said, which included better communication and ensuring midwives were aware of the guidance on transferring mothers to hospital.<\/p>\n
They added that the trust would respond to the issues raised by the coroner in due course.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A mother who lost her baby a week after an \u201cunsafe\u201d home birth that went against medical advice was failed by the NHS, an inquest has found. Poppy Hope Lomas was seven days old when she died at University College hospital in London on 26 October 2022 after complications during a home birth that, according<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48690,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[631,5189,4648,2675,4051,189,456,4611,1229,1876,14432,1952],"class_list":{"0":"post-48689","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-baby","9":"tag-birth","10":"tag-coroner","11":"tag-died","12":"tag-failed","13":"tag-finds","14":"tag-home","15":"tag-mother","16":"tag-nhs","17":"tag-trust","18":"tag-unsafe","19":"tag-warn"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48689\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/48690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}