A father was forced to deliver his own baby daughter after the midwife ‘panicked’ and left the room minutes before the birth.
Matt Gray’s daughter Cleo was born with her umbilical cord wrapped around her neck, which the former ambulance technician had to carefully remove.
The midwife in the delivery room at the John Radcliffe Hospital Women’s Centre, in Oxford, disappeared for 15 minutes after Cleo’s heartbeat went down to 110 bpm, leaving Mr Gray to don some rubber gloves and help his wife Jo deliver their baby.
By the time staff returned to the room, Cleo had been cleaned up and was being cradled by Mrs Cray.
The mother-of-four has blasted staff at the hospital, describing the ordeal as ‘terrifying’, while Mr Gray has launched a formal complaint with the Oxford University Hospitals Trusts (OUH) and the Care Quality Commission.
According to Mrs Cray, Staff at the hospital did not immediately apologise for her harrowing birth and instead told her it ‘was very unfortunate but everything was ok’.
The OUH has since apologised to the family.
Mrs Cray was rushed to the hospital after she went into labour two weeks early on February 21.
Matt and Jo Gray’s baby daughter Cleo (pictured) was delivered by her father after the midwife ‘panicked’ and left the room minutes before the birth
John Radcliffe Hospital Women’s Centre, where baby Cleo was delivered. Her parents have blasted staff at the hospital and they have launched a formal complaint with the Oxford University Hospitals Trusts (OUH) and the Care Quality Commission
Due to her several medical conditions, the birth was deemed high-risk and, with Cleo being the couple’s fourth child, it was likely the labour would progress quickly.
Once at the hospital, they were entrusted to a ‘lovely’ midwife at first who shortly had to leave and was replaced with a less experienced midwife.
‘It went downhill from there; it was really bad,’ Mrs Cray told the Banbury Gazette.
The mother claimed the new midwife ‘lacked communication, didn’t talk to us’ and gave ‘no reassurance’.
She continued: ‘The midwife kept moving me. Apparently baby’s heart rate kept changing but it was after every contraction, which is normal.
‘But she started panicking, which in turn, made me panic. Her face kept dropping and she was constantly getting me to move, telling me that baby’s heart rate was dropping and it was getting dangerous.’
The midwife then left the room, leaving the concerned parents on their own.
Mr Cray ran to fetch the midwife who left again after 30 seconds. They did not return for another 15 minutes and by that time Cleo had been born.
By the time staff returned to the room after leaving the family alone for 15 minutes, Cleo had been cleaned up and was being cradled by Mrs Cray
Mrs Gray described the ordel as ‘terrifying’ warning ‘it could have gone so wrong’.
An OUH spokesman said: ‘We have heard from Jordan and Matthew Gray and are very sorry for the difficult childbirth experience they have described which appears to have fallen short of the high standards we set for ourselves.
‘We are taking the issues they raise very seriously and will be carrying out a full investigation into what happened.
‘We are unable to provide further detail while that investigation is underway but are committed to openness and transparency when sharing our full findings with Jordan and Matthew once the process has been completed.’
The hospital’s maternity unit is also one of 12 across the UK under scrutiny in the Maternity & Neonatal Investigation led by Valerie Amos.
