Ex-midwife Lisa Barrett tells mother she “did all she could” during twin homebirth, in secret recording played in Supreme Court

Ex-midwife Lisa Barrett told a mother it was “my fault” she had not told her to urgently transfer to hospital when complications arose during her twin homebirth, a court heard.

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Ex-midwife Lisa Barrett told a mother it was “my fault” she had not told her to urgently transfer to hospital when complications arose during her twin homebirth, a court heard.

Barrett also told mother Sarah Kerr she “didn’t intentionally put your baby at risk” and she had done “all she could” while she was attending Ms Kerr’s twin homebirth.

Barrett, 52, of Petwood in the Adelaide Hills also apologised for not telling Ms Kerr she needed to urgently transfer to hospital after the first twin, a healthy baby girl, was born in October 2011 and the hear rate of the second twin, Tully, plummeted in utero.

The June 2014 conversation was played to the Supreme Court this week, where Barrett is standing trial charged with two counts of manslaughter over the death of Tully and another unnamed baby after homebirths Barrett attended.

Mother Sarah Kerr

Ex-midwife Lisa Barrett

During the recording, which police organised to be secretly recorded, the court heard Barrett and Ms Kerr had been “best friends” before the birth but ceased contact sometime after Tully’s death.

Prosecutors allege Barrett was “calm, composed and almost casual” and failed to inform Ms Kerr of the urgency she should attend hospital, or advise her to call an ambulance, as his heart rate dropped as low as 60 beats per minute.

During the conversation, Ms Kerr asked Barrett why she had not advised her to go to hospital as soon as Tully’s hear rate dropped to 100 beats per minute, or again when it dropped to 80 beats per minute. The court has previously heard a healthy baby has a heart rate between 120-120 beats per minute.

“Well I said I wasn’t happy,” Barrett said.

“You didn’t … you didn’t say ‘this is really bad’ … how come you were calm like everything’s fine? There was no urgency,” Ms Kerr said.

Later in the conversation, Ms Kerr again asked why Barrett had not told her to go to hospital.

“I asked you when I was in the water, I even said to you ‘should we go now?’. I was never resistant to going, never.”

Barrett replied: “I didn’t think that you wouldn’t go to hospital if I asked you to go. Should I have pushed you harder, maybe I should have.

“I’m sorry I didn’t make you go to the hospital earlier, that would have been the right thing, but I didn’t do that.”

Ms Kerr said Barrett “didn’t have to make me go to the hospital” because she had already “asked earlier”.

“I’m sorry I didn’t give you the right answer.,” Barret replied.

“If I didn’t get you to the hospital early enough then I’m sorry for that.”

She said “in hindsight of course we should have gone quicker”.

Barrett apologised to Ms Kerr for not telling her the situation was urgent.

“Sorry I didn’t give you the impression that it was urgent, I can do nothing more than apologise,” she said.

“It’s my fault I didn’t convey to you exactly what was going on.

“I am responsible. It’s my fault if I didn’t convey to you the emergency of the situation.”

During the conversation Ms Kerr said her husband was also unaware the situation was an emergency because he could smell Barrett smoking outside.

“Why didn’t you say ‘call an ambulance’ … you just said ‘do you want to get an ambulance or do you want to drive? There was no sense of urgency.,” Ms Kerr said.

“If I didn’t convey that emergency situation that is something that I didn’t do. And that would make me responsible for that,” Barrett said.

“Did I think it was an emergency? Yes I did. Did I think it was going to be OK? No, I didn’t think that Tully was going to die, I thought that we would get to the hospital, I did.”

Ms Kerr told Barrett she “had no idea” the situation was so dire at the time.

Barrett also said she could never have purposely put Tully’s life at risk.

“Would I have put your baby at risk? We were best friends, of course I wouldn’t have f … ing done that”.

“Was the situation on purpose, of course it wasn’t.”

Barrett also told Ms Kerr she had done “everything that I could have done”.

She said despite her calm demeanour at the time, she “wasn’t feeling calm” and

Ms Kerr said had not even suggested she attend hospital, and “told everyone that I refused, that’s not true”.

Ms Kerr asked Barrett “why didn’t you do anything”, to which Barrett replies “I feel like I did what I could do”.

“I feel like I did the best that we could do at the time. I didn’t let him die,” Barrett said.

The court has previously

Scott Henchliffe SC, for Barrett, previously told the court said “every element of each of the offences is in dispute”.

The trial, before Justice Ann Vanstone without a jury, continues.