Dylan was my second child and my husband’s fourth. I was 22 when I had him. We were worried throughout the pregnancy as my eldest was born 2 months premature and I fell with him quite soon after her. There is only 11 months between them. I did go into labour at 30wks but the hospital managed to stop it. We lived in Basingstoke, Hampshire.
I went into labour at 36+4. I went into hospital where I saw an agency midwife. She took a swab and while examining me she hurt me a lot and caused me to bleed heavily. I found out later that she had done a swab without my knowledge or permission. I was in hospital for 2 days but my contractions never increased so I was sent home. Later that afternoon my waters went and in the early hours of the morning, Dylan was born.
When he was born, he was grunting which they said was cos he didn’t have enough fluid in his lungs and was sticking together as he breathed. He then started blowing bubbles, which they said was a result of too much fluid on the lungs. We couldn’t understand how it could go from one extreme to another so we asked for a doctor to be called. Dr said they would take him to SCBU for suctioning and he would be back in an hour.
I woke up a few hours later and he wasn’t there. A midwife came in and said my swab results had come back saying I had group B Strep and had probably passed it into Dylan. I spent time with him in SCBU before I was discharged home. I was told that, as it was a Friday, there was a possibility of him being transferred to a bigger hospital but not to worry too much about it.
An hour after I left I received a phone call to say he was being transferred. I got to the hospital within 5 minutes to be told he was dying. He had already gone once but a nurse there called Ian got him back even though he knew there was no hope. He had lost a baby himself and said he couldn’t die without us being there with him, as we would never forgive ourselves. We told them to switch off the machines and he died 20mins later in our arms.
We found out a couple of days later that the swab that was taken from me was never sent down someone found it a couple of days later and sent it down. If it was sent when first taken like it was supposed to be we would have found out about the Strep B before he was born I would have been given antibiotics and he might have been OK.
