Couple claim midwife’s breastfeeding advice resulted in baby’s brain damage
A COUPLE whose baby daughter suffered brain damage during her first breastfeed are suing the NHS for millions of pounds, claiming they were let down by a midwife.
Julia Geis-clements, 39, a marketing manager, and her husband, Lee Clements, 41, a financier, say a midwife gave inadequate advice on how to breast feed their daughter, Cerys.
The couple’s lawyers claim the midwife failed to warn them to keep their daughter’s airway clear as her mother held her to her breast.
Cerys collapsed less than half an hour after her delivery at Queen Charlotte’s and Chelsea Hospital, west London, in July 2012, the High Court heard. The lack of oxygen meant she now needs 24-hour care.
Although Mrs Geis-clements had attended antenatal classes, Cerys was her first baby and the “exhausted” mother had no experience of feeding an infant.
The couple claim the midwife had promised to check on Cerys 10 minutes into the feed, but failed to do so.
At one point in the feed, Mrs Geisclements felt Cerys “lose contact” with the breast, her QC, Angus Moon, told the court. She “guided” her baby back into position but, soon afterwards, Cerys seemed to doze off, he added.
“She did not want to disturb Cerys as she thought that she was sleeping,” but became alarmed when she noticed her turning “pale and floppy”.
“Cerys had suffered an episode of hypoxia which had caused her severe brain damage,” said Mr Moon.
Cerys requires constant care due to her now having cerebral palsy, epilepsy and visual impairment, the court heard, as well as “significant neuro-developmental problems”.
Mrs Geis-clements and her husband, from Denham, Bucks, are suing Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust on Cerys’ behalf, alleging the midwife gave negligent advice. Cerys’ claim is of “maximum value” and she will win millions to pay for her care if Mrs Justice May rules against the NHS.
Cerys received emergency first aid immediately after her delivery to help her breathe, the court heard. She was then handed to Mrs Geis-clements to be fed.
Although the infant seemed to be “latched on”, the mother said she “felt uncomfortable” as she could not see her face.
“I instinctively felt that she might be too close up to my breast. This led me to check with the midwife that Cerys would be able to breathe while positioned like that,” she told the court. “The midwife said that a baby would wriggle and pull their head back if they could not breathe properly during breastfeeding,” she added.
The midwife, however, says she advised Cerys’ mum that she should support the infant’s back and neck during feeding, but not to hold her too tightly and not to hold the back of her head.
She had no recollection of Mrs Geisclements “specifically asking her about the possibility of her baby not being able to breathe during feeding”, said John Whitting QC, for the NHS trust.
But she would have explained the risks of holding the back of a baby’s head during feeding and that a child will not suffocate on the breast so long as it can move its head back, said Mr Whitting.
Mrs Geis-clements, he added, had been an “assiduous” attendee at prebirth NCT classes, at which “safe breast feeding practice would have been covered in some detail”.
The cause of Cerys’ oxygen starvation was probably a “random post-natal sudden collapse” which could not have been foreseen and in which negligence played no part, he told the court.
The hearing continues.