A mother’s fears about her unborn baby girl were ignored by midwives at the One Born Every Minute NHS hospital an inquest has heard.
Steph Sherwood claimed complications she had experienced with two previous pregnancies were not ‘taken into consideration’ and resulted in the death of her baby girl Phoebe.
The county council worker said she told midwives her bump was not growing and she couldn’t feel her baby moving.
Despite raising her concerns to midwives at Princess Anne hospital in Southampton an ‘anxious and aware’ Mrs Sherwood was reportedly told that ‘it was okay’ and no further action was taken.
But after being born prematurely in February 2022, ‘Little Phoebe’ died aged just two days old and her parents are now alleging that if Mrs Sherwood’s concerns were looked at, the little girl may have survived.
Steph Sherwood (pictured) claimed complications she had experienced with two previous pregnancies were not ‘taken into consideration’
She attended the inquest with her husband Karl – the couple have suffered a miscarriage and a stillbirth but welcomed a daughter in 2019
Corrine Suddes (pictured) is a midwife at Princess Anne hospital in Southampton where Channel 4’s One Born Every Minute is filmed
Mrs Sherwood told a coroner that if her history – including previously suffering a stillbirth and a miscarriage – had been reviewed by the health workers caring for her, then her daughter ‘would be here today’.
The expectant mum said ‘things started to go wrong’ when she noticed the ‘same pattern’ of events during her fourth pregnancy as she had in the past.
On February 10, 2024, Mrs Sherwood went to the hospital for a regular scan to check the baby’s heartbeat and during her appointment she told her midwife about her pregnancy concerns.
Despite her worries, Mrs Sherwood was sent home for the rest of the day but was due to return later on for more regular scans.
She said: ‘Because of my history I felt like it was safer to be in hospital, if they noticed something they could act quickly and having two CTGs in a day made me feel better.
‘Scans are anxious for us anyway because we have always received bad news in scans before so they are never a good experience.
‘Princess Anne isn’t my favourite place to be in anyway so being there on my own… I did feel anxious.’
She returned to hospital only a few hours later at 7pm where she underwent an emergency caesarean section.
The county council worker said she told midwives her bump was not growing and she could not feel her unborn baby moving but her fears were dismissed
Mrs Sherwood gave birth to a little girl, Phoebe, who sadly died just two days later at Princess Anne hospital (pictured Princess Anne meeting midwives at the hospital’s maternity unit)
The hospital was made famous after its maternity ward was featured in Channel 4’s One Born Every Minute (pictured)
Mrs Sherwood gave birth to her second daughter, little Phoebe.
However the baby was born with ‘no heartbeat’ and a ‘poor prognosis’ and she died just two days later, with her parents by her side.
In a statement read out to court, Mrs Sherwood – who attended the hearing with husband Karl – said she first fell pregnant in 2015.
The mother of one said while she was considered a ‘low-risk pregnancy’ but her own mother had previously suffered two stillbirths and four miscarriages
In August 2016, the expectant mother ‘gave birth to a stillborn baby’ and the following year, her second pregnancy ‘ended in a miscarriage’.
Mrs Sherwood gave birth again in 2019 to a girl and two years later became pregnant again.
She said: ‘My fourth pregnancy was with Phoebe.
‘Phoebe was born with no heartbeat. Sadly she did not make it.
‘No one could say what could have happened but I believe that if my whole history was reviewed then things started to go wrong then she would be here today.’
Giving live evidence, the mother said there were ‘two points’ that ‘stand out’ during her maternity care – which she believes contributed to Phoebe’s death.
Firstly, Mrs Sherwood raised concerns that the growth of her bump had slowed – but no further action was taken.
The mother had ‘always been two weeks ahead’ of plan regarding the development of her baby bump meaning at 32 weeks, she should be displaying the growth of a mother who was at 34 weeks.
The distraught council worker said: ‘[The midwife] measured my bump and I said I was always measuring two weeks ahead.
‘When I was measuring exactly as I should, that was slow growth. I said the bump had slowed.
‘But the midwife said she couldn’t send me to another one because they had to be two weeks apart.
‘Because I was measuring at 32 weeks – which is what I should be – she wasn’t worried because this is how I should be measuring.
‘It worried me because of what had happened on 2016 – that’s how it started.
‘But because she said she couldn’t send me to another growth scan I heard there was nothing else she could – just because I already had one and it wasn’t showing any sign.
‘I feel like maybe if I had more monitoring from them then I don’t know if things would have happened quicker. If they noticed the growth was slowing they might have brought her out earlier.’
The expectant mother said she also told midwives she could no longer feel the baby moving.
Mrs Sherwood told the inquest: ‘I said I didn’t feel any movement and the midwife said that it was okay, we look at other things.
‘I feel like if they had kept me on the trace, it would have been picked up how she should have been.
‘It was the same pattern so I just felt like it was reoccurring.’
Providing evidence to the court, Consultant Obstetrician & Gynaecologist, Patrick Forbes, said the case surrounding the infant’s death is ‘confusing and complex’.
Discussing whether Mrs Sherwood should have been sent home, he said: ‘With the history of absent foetal movement, whilst it would still have been acceptable to allow Mrs Sherwood home, I think she would, or should have been, allowed to come in sooner – unless she started feeling movement while away from the hospital.’
