9:20am Monday 16th November 2009
By Oliver Evans
TWO women gave birth in the back of an ambulance because of changes at Wycombe Hospital – leading them to warn that lives are at risk.
Veronica Roberts had to race from Wycombe to Aylesbury because she needed a maternity doctor – a service which was axed from Wycombe Hospital last month. She gave birth on the A4010.
And Victoria Stacey delivered in an ambulance outside the Eden centre because traffic was too heavy to get to Stoke Mandeville, Aylesbury, where staff said she should go.
Both babies are fine – but their parents fear for others.
The story, which has angered many, featured on ITV London Tonight news programme on Friday evening.
Hospital bosses insisted arrangements – whereby all doctor-led births in Bucks are carried out in Aylesbury – are safe.
Mrs Roberts, 23, who lives in the Wycombe area, planned to deliver at Wycombe, which has had a midwives-only service since October 19, because her birth was expected to be “safe”.
Yet the baby passed meconium, a stool, while still in the womb and staff ordered a transfer as it posed a risk.
However, minutes later the ambulance had to pull over on the A4010 at Bradenham. Baby Logan was born at about 00.50am on Tuesday of last week.
Mrs Roberts, a housewife, said: “I was frightened for Logan’s life, I don’t think my health ever crossed my mind.
“I’m just thankful it was a happy ending because had it been someone else, at a different time of day, with different complications, it may have turned out differently. At some point, the worst may happen.”
Husband James, 25, an RAF clerk who had just returned from Afghanistan, followed the ambulance. He said: “It is one of the worst feelings in your life to see your wife in pain trying to give birth to your offspring in the back of an ambulance.”
And at 9am yesterday, Victoria Stacey, 33, gave birth to son Finn in the back of an ambulance in a layby outside Tesco at Eden, High Wycombe.
Husband Mark had planned to drive her to Stoke Mandeville. But he hit 8.30am traffic in Terriers and said her midwife told him by phone to go home and call an ambulance.
Last month, the resident of Croftwood, Totteridge featured in the Bucks Free Press when she said she was “dreading” the thought of delivering in her husband’s Audi.
Mr Stacey, 27, who also had to follow the ambulance, said the umbilical cord had to be unwrapped from the baby’s neck.
He said: “Can you imagine me doing that in the back of the car? I’m not trained.
“There is a serious safety risk to mothers and babies. It just shows that we need a maternity unit.”
His wife said: “If I had had problems with the baby, we would have been in real trouble.”
Buckinghamshire Hospitals NHS Trust spokesman Lee Jones said: “There are occasions, although infrequent, where women do give birth en-route from their home to the hospital, annually this happens between eight and ten times a year.”
Wycombe has “robust protocols” to choose which women to take and the “vast majority” of deliveries are straightforward, she said. There were 5,415 births at both hospitals in 2008/09.
Midwives are trained to spot potential problems and transfers are “safe”.
Stoke is “appropriately and safely staffed”, she said, and she urged unhappy patients to contact the hospital. She said: “We are pleased that Mrs Roberts and her baby are well.”
Trauma A&E cases left the hospital in 2005. Doctor-led births and overnight pregnancy and children’s care were all transferred to Aylesbury last month.
Bosses said the changes are needed as there not enough doctors for both sites, posing a risk.
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