An inquest at Barnet Coroner's Court has heard how a midwife placed a 'blue and floppy' newborn on her mother's chest and said 'there's your baby'. Poppy Hope Lomas died seven days after her birth at University College Hospital in London on 26 October 2022, following complications during a planned home delivery.
Gemma Lomas, Poppy's mother, said in a witness statement read to the court that midwives were slow to react when Poppy was born. 'Poppy was blue and floppy. There was blood coming out of her mouth and her head fell back. That's a horrific memory that sticks in my mind, being handed my dead baby,' Ms Lomas said.
The inquest heard that Ms Lomas had previously had a caesarean section for her first daughter, but was not made aware of the risks of a vaginal birth after caesarean (VBAC) at home. Senior coroner Andrew Walker was told that Alice Boardman, head midwife at Edgware Midwives, was enthusiastic about a home VBAC, describing it as a 'tick box exercise' to speak with a consultant.
Guidance from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists states that VBACs should be conducted in a 'suitably staffed and equipped delivery suite' with resources for immediate caesarean delivery. The inquest also heard that midwives dismissed Ms Lomas's complaints of pain from her previous C-section scar. She recalled saying her scar was 'tight' and 'starting to really hurt', but the midwife continued using a Doppler monitor.
Poppy was transferred to hospital by ambulance after the midwives told Mr Lomas to call 999. Consultant neonatologist Dr Giles Kendall said Poppy's brain scan was 'one of the worst that he'd seen in his career' and that she had been 'starved of oxygen for a long time'. Ms Boardman estimated the oxygen deprivation lasted seven to eight minutes. Poppy died when her breathing tube was removed.
