Staff 'too busy to deliver baby'

Watford General Hospital is investigating the incident

A 26-year-old woman says her fiancé was forced to deliver their baby at home after staff at the local hospital said they were too busy to help.

Sally Earnshaw said she phoned Watford General Hospital to say her waters had broken and she was in labour.

But instead of being told to come in, she claims she was told to take paracetamol and have a bath.

Miss Earnshaw said she called the hospital repeatedly but staff refused to believe she was about to give birth.

One midwife told her she was not in labour and she "should have read the books more carefully".

"We would have just jumped in the car and driven over there, but it was made pretty plain that if we did there would be no bed for me, and the midwife was assuring me I wasn't as far into labour as I thought," Miss Earnshaw told newspapers.

Phonecalls

The restaurant manager, from Rickmansworth in Hertfordshire, went into labour at 3am on 15 May. She called Watford General Hospital six hours later but was told to take paracetamol.

The hospital's treatment was disgusting Sally Earnshaw

She phoned again eight hours later to say her waters had broken. A midwife told her that three other women were in labour at the hospital and they were "too busy" to deal with her and that her waters hadn't broken at all.

Her fiancé, Matthew Cox, phoned 999. Half an hour later and nine hours after the first call to Watford General, he helped to deliver baby James.

Mr Cox, who runs beauty salons, said: "It was terrifying. I had no idea what to do, but thankfully the cord wasn't around his neck and everything seemed ok.

"Initially, we were just relieved he was healthy, but after a while we began to think about all of the 'what ifs'," he said.

"Sally did all the hard work. I don't know how I knew what to do."

Miss Earnshaw had been particularly anxious because doctors had been monitoring the pregnancy closely.

'Disgusting'

"I was worried because my four-year-old daughter has serious learning difficulties and there are concerns that these may have been caused during pregnancy or birth.

"Because of that, my pregnancy had been monitored more closely than usual and I expected the birth to be too. But it was a fiasco.

"The hospital's treatment was disgusting. Not only did they fail to provide adequate care, they actually told me off for bothering them."

A spokesman for the hospital declined to comment on the specifics of the case.

"We are always extremely concerned to hear that any patient is unhappy with the clinical care they have received.

"It would be inappropriate to comment on this particular patient as the trust is investigating an on-going formal complaint.

"The trust is committed to providing the best possible maternity services."