‘Paisley was absolutely perfect. I just feel so angry – I gave birth to a perfect baby, she just had no heartbeat...’
A devastated couple have told how their baby joy turned to heartbreak when the infant’s heart stopped beating during labour. Lydia Stephens reports
PARENTS Simon Jenkins and Kim Prosser were filled with excitement in the build-up to the birth of their baby daughter, who they had already named Paisley.
The couple’s first child together and the fifth sister to the couple’s other daughters, was due on January 26, 2023.
Other than Kim having a low-lying placenta, the couple described her pregnancy as “perfect”, and after having additional scans to check the position of the placenta six weeks before her due date, Kim was told there was no reason she couldn’t have a natural delivery.
The couple, from Caerphilly, were filled with joy and Kim was reassured knowing she could have the delivery that she always wanted. As her due date approached, Kim started to experience pains in her back and stomach.
She was reassured by her midwife that this meant baby was coming.
Kim, 28, who is mum to two daughters aged nine and two, was familiar with the pains and pressures that you experience as you come to the end of your pregnancy, but sought reassurance from the maternity services at Ysbyty Ystrad Fawr the day after her due date as she was concerned her waters might be leaking and that baby
Paisley’s movements had reduced
While she was at the hospital, Kim was hooked up to a monitor to hear baby Paisley’s heartbeat.
Her bump was also checked and Kim said after the “poking and prodding”, Paisley’s movements picked up and she felt reassured her baby was OK.
A swab also confirmed Kim’s waters were not leaking, so the couple were sent home.
But Kim was still concerned. “You know, when you’ve just got an uneasy feeling? Like I can feel something is not quite right.”
Kim said she was told her baby’s movements might have slowed down because she was due to give birth any day, but she said she was also informed to let them know if there was a change.
“So I was a bit like, they’re telling me two different things.”
The weekend passed fine but by Sunday Kim started to experience more pain, and by 5am on Monday morning, she knew the pains were contractions and that she was in labour.
“We even joked, because Kim had so many pains and stuff, we joked is this actually it now? I feel guilty now, that I joked about it,” added Simon, 39. “At that point we were just oblivious, obviously,” added Kim.
They went to the Grange Hospital and were seen at the triage ward, where their plans of bringing their baby daughter home were flipped upside down.
“It was like something was telling us that something wasn’t quite right. I just had a weird feeling. The first machine (that monitors a baby’s heartbeat and contractions) wasn’t working, so they got another one. She was fiddling around trying to place it in different places of my stomach. And I had a sinking feeling because I was all bump, so as soon as you put that machine on my belly, you could hear Paisley’s heartbeats.
“The midwife would have known what position she was in (Paisley) and nothing came back. She ran and got another machine and the same thing happened again. I just asked outright, ‘Why can’t you find my baby’s heartbeat?’ And she took us into another side room with an ultrasound machine and she started scanning me.
“And that is when she said to us that she couldn’t find Paisley’s heartbeat.”
The midwife fetched a consultant who did the same checks. Simon added: “He said, pretty much straight away, that Paisley had no heartbeat. I could hear him saying about Paisley’s spine and different things like that, the cord. He said, ‘I can’t tell you the reason why your daughter has passed away, I can’t find the reason why this has happened to you.’”
Kim added: “I think that was the worst feeling. They didn’t know why. So then, over the next couple of days, I had to give birth to my daughter not knowing why she’d passed away and come to terms with it.”
The couple said the staff at the hospital were amazing with them as they came to terms with their loss. However, they do have questions and concerns over their care, and wonder if there was more that could have been done to make sure Paisley was OK when they went to the hospital just a few days before Kim went into labour.
On reflection, they believe they should have been given an ultrasound to check Kim’s placenta due to her history of having a low-lying placenta. They were concerned that this might have been the reason for Paisley’s passing. They have requested a post-mortem report and are awaiting the results.
After finding out about Paisley’s passing on Monday, Kim laboured for two days before giving birth to her daughter just after midnight on Wednesday morning. Kim said: “It was absolute torture knowing I had to give birth to Paisley, knowing the end results. Still having her in my belly, you’re almost waiting for a little movement, a little kick, anything. When I started to go, when I was in full blown labour, I was kind of relieved it was happening. But at the same time, I just kept breaking down during my labour. Like when my water went I knew she was finally coming.
“She was absolutely perfect. I just feel so angry. I give birth to a perfect baby, she just has no heartbeat.”
Simon added: “When she was born, I didn’t want to turn my head, but I turned my head. I looked at her beautiful hair, it just felt surreal. I just wanted her to smile or cry.”
What happened after her birth has also contributed to their concerns about the placenta being the cause of Paisley’s death. Simon said at this point there were three midwives in the room trying to help Kim deliver her placenta.
They were encouraging her to try different positions and she was on her hands and knees and the midwife was attempting to pull the placenta. Simon said: “It gets a bit traumatic now, they were trying to move her to get the placenta. She was in more pain with this placenta than when she gave birth to Paisley.”
Kim described the feeling as if her “insides were being pulled out.” Simon said at this point he was so worried for his fiancee and while he was grieving the loss of his daughter, Paisley, he was focused on Kim’s health with the concern of losing her too.
Reflecting on the days since Paisley was born on February 1, Kim said: “If we didn’t have our other girls, I don’t think we would get out of bed to be honest.” Simon, who is father to twin girls, echoed the sentiment, and said their daughters were keeping them going.
They were discharged from the hospital on the Thursday; however, they avoided going home because every room in their house had something ready for Paisley. Kim said: “We were finding excuses not to come home so we went to see Simon’s brother and we stayed there.
“And then on Friday we had no choice to come home. We had to go and register her death, which was hard, you’re meant to be registering your baby’s birth. You never ever think you’re going to register your child’s death in a million years. We should be thinking about days out not sitting here making funeral arrangements.”
The family have received support from a number of charities following Paisley’s passing, including Sands. They have also been gifted bears for their children by the charity, Aching Arms, and now Simon has set up a fundraising page in order to purchase bears for other families in memory of his daughter.
Aching Arms is a charity that gives its comfort bears to hospitals and hospices, for midwives and nurses to offer to bereaved parents in their care.
Simon said: “To me, this is something to focus on. I want it out there, I want Paisley’s name out there.
“I want to be open with other families going through what we are going through, I want to share my pain with them, I want to do everything I possibly can.”
Kim added that she wanted to share Paisley’s story because stillbirths and miscarriages weren’t spoken about enough. She added: “It should be out there more to know that it is OK to talk about it.”
They are awaiting the post-mortem examination results following Paisley’s passing but they both insist they want to fight for an answer to explain Paisley’s death and they also believe more could have been done in the days up to discovering that she no longer had a heartbeat to make sure that everything was OK.
A spokesman for Aneurin Bevan University Health Board said: “The loss of a child during pregnancy or birth is devastating and painful. Our thoughts and sincere condolences for their loss are with Ms Prosser and her family, and we are very sorry that there are concerns with the care she received.
“In the tragic event of a perinatal death, we will provide support to the family and ensure that bereavement support is available. We will fully involve the family in a review of the care and treatment and share any findings in an open and transparent manner. Once again, we would like to express our sincere condolences to Ms Prosser and their family for their loss.”