Mother, 33, gives inquest harrowing account of how midwives ‘pushed on her stomach’ to deliver breached baby minutes before his still birth at North Devon District Hospital that is linked to at least 20 maternity deaths

• Charlotte Barnett told an inquest midwives were told to ‘push on her stomach’  
• She was ‘absolutely inconsolable’ when a nurse told her her baby had died  
• At least 20 maternity deaths have been linked to North Devon District hospital 

 A heartbroken mother has given a harrowing account of how her baby son was still born after panicking midwives ‘pushed on her stomach’ at a hospital linked to at lesat 20 maternity deaths.

Charlotte Barnett told an inquest at Exeter’s County Hall today that during labour at the North Devon District Hospital, her son Freddie was breached and his foot was delivered first.

She said midwives were told by a doctor to ‘push on her stomach’ in an effort to deliver the baby naturally.

Ms Barnett of Westward Ho! Devon, was left ‘absolutely inconsolable’ when a nurse told her, her son Freddie had died.  

Charlotte Barnett told an inquest how midwives at the North Devon District Hospital, ‘pushed on her stomach’ to deliver breached baby

Ms Barnett said that while she was in labour, in June 2017, the midwives panicked and pressed the emergency button.

A doctor in scrubs rushed into her room and examined her and thought Freddie was breached, despite earlier assurances that was no longer the case. 

She said the doctor said there were two options – a natural birth or an emergency Caesarian section. 

But she said she didn’t have the chance to answer as the midwives had already put her legs in stirrups.

Ms Barnett said: ‘He did not tell me about the risks. If the risks had been explained I would have had C section…even if it had risked my life.’

She said she was in excruciating pain as the baby’s head was stuck and she claimed the doctor shouted at the midwives to ‘push her stomach’.

Freddie was delivered and immediately taken to a trolley.  

Shortly after a paediatric nurse returned to the room to say they had done everything they could to save Freddie and she screamed at them to ‘keep trying’.

The baby was brought over for Ms Barnett to hold him and she said she was ‘absolutely inconsolable’. 

 She claimed the doctor put his hand on her arm and said: ‘I know how you

feel, my wife had a stillborn. I was heartbroken. Freddie was not stillborn.

‘He did not even say he was sorry for what had happened.’

The report identified a ‘lack of trust and respect’ between staff and ‘anxiety’ among senior midwives at the quality of care

 Ms Barnett had given birth to her first two children naturally without any problems.

Her mother, Daphne Bickell who was with her at the time of the Freddie’s death, said the scene looked ‘barbaric’ when the medical staff tried to deliver Freddie. 

A review back in 2013 by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists investigated 11 serious clinical incidents at the unit which dated back to 2008.

The report showed failings in ‘working relationships’ at the hospital and found midwives were working autonomously. 

It also identified that some senior doctors failed to give guidance to junior colleagues. 

The next investigation by RCOG in 2017 expressed concerns with the ‘decision-making and clinical competency’ of senior doctors and their co-operation with midwives.  

An independent midwifery review in 2017 identified ‘poor communication’ between medical staff at the unit for more than 10 years.    

The inquest is due to last four days and continues. 

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