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Jackie with Megan, aged two monthsFamily’s life ruined bynightmare birth“I watched it happen.That’s what they did tomy wife and daughter”week scan, she was still saying it was a 6lb baby.”Mike: “The midwife told us we could have another scan justbefore the due date, but that it was bad for the baby to get scanafter scan and repeated that it was just fluid. We were first timeparents. She was very confident so we thought it was all good. Wedidn’t look at the paper work until later – with six weeks to gobefore she was due, the child was then about 6lb. It doesn’t take arocket scientist to tell that the child was going to gain weight overthe final weeks and would not be 6lb at birth.”On March 26 2005, Jackie went into labour at 3 o’clock in themorning. The midwife arrived just before 8am and the couple wentto Pukekohe Maternity Unit, where a water birth was planned.Jackie was assessed and told to “get pushing”. The midwife decidedto “speed things up” by breaking Jackie’s waters. The result was atiny trickle – there was hardly any fluid. Jackie was right - it wasall baby. The midwife ignored the warning sign and told Jackieto push. She said Jackie was fully dilated. “She got a colleague tocheck how my baby was positioned.” At 1pm, an ambulance tookJackie to Middlemore. In the ambulance the midwife told thecouple: “physically the baby will not fit – it looks like it’s going tobe a caesarian.” At Middlemore Hospital, the examining doctortold Jackie she was not fully dilated.Mike: “At the hospital the doctor spoke about an epidural.Jackie was in a lot of pain. The doctor looked at her briefly, thenwas called away. This happened ½ a dozen times. He would startto examine her and be interrupted by his pager. At one stage hewas holding his pager while he was examining her. I believe henever had a decent time to properly examine Jackie. He couldn’tconcentrate and overlooked the severity of the situation. Thehospital later sent us an ‘advocate’ email to apologise for this actionand the lack of communication by the doctor, but he subsequentlydenied the incident with the pager had ever happened, to theHealth and Disability enquiry. I was there. I witnessed all of it. ”At 6pm, Jackie was told about what to expect for a caesarian andwas prepped. An hour later the plan was abandoned without tellingthe Feltons what was going on. Jackie was told to continue pushing.“The midwife told me that if I didn’t push, I might get a caesarian,and I would regret it.”Mike was by this stage becoming extremely agitated. “I thought,how urgent is our case? Now we are on the backburner. A seniormidwife examined Jackie and mentioned an “asian pelvis” and thatJackie was extremely dry. We later found there had been a study ofmixed race births out for two years, because of the difficulties withthe size of asian pelvises. They should have known about that at thehospital. The senior midwife did.”“The doctor came back at 9pm and said “let’s have a baby.”He unpacked the vontuce equipment, with suction cap, to pullthe child out. The head appeared, but soon the doctor was very“We were expecting our first child and were delightedwhen the scan showed it was a little girl. But at the laterstages of pregnancy, we were both uneasy. Jackie washuge. People asked if we were having twins. We wentback to the midwife several times and asked her aboutthe size of the baby. She kept assuring us it was a 6lbbaby, with a lot of fluid.”Mike and Jackie Felton of Pukekohe continued to beconcerned. Jackie, who is Chinese, could feel the babywas big. “I was packed. The baby filled me. I asked if Iwas eating too much, I was so concerned. We asked themidwife more than 10 times about its size, but at the 3214Megan in Intensive Care at Middlemore