‘Longest day of my life’: Mum left ‘broken’ after baby ripped from arms until negative PCR test

A Queensland hospital is investigating shock claims by a mother that her hours-old baby was taken from her and she was told she wouldn’t see him again until she returned a negative PCR test.

A Queensland mother claims her newborn baby was taken away against her will after giving birth because of a heavy-handed hospital decision to remove him until she returned a negative Covid PCR test.

Caboolture Hospital has launched an investigation into the shocking claims made by Narangba woman Aleasha Pique, 36, who said she was told the test result could take “days” due to a backlog, and the agonising wait alone in the maternity ward left her “broken”.

Ms Pique, who is fully vaccinated and exclusively breastfeeding, said the hospital’s nurses were even shocked when her baby boy Remy was taken away after she revealed her teenage daughter was a casual contact of a confirmed Covid case.

She spent hours in limbo in what she says was the “longest day of my life” before the negative result came back and Remy – born three weeks ago – was returned to her arms.

Aleasha Pique with baby Remy. Picture: Jamie Hanson

Queensland Health’s policy is “to make all efforts to keep mother and baby together even if the mother has Covid”, but Ms Pique said that was not her experience.

“Everything about Remy’s arrival was destroyed by a decision made by the Covid team at the hospital. They declared that he needed to be separated from me,” she said.

“Even the nurses were horrified. One said to me ‘I’m so sorry, I’m ashamed to work here. This kind of thing should only happen in movies’.

“I begged for a Rapid Antigen Test but they said no. When the staff wheeled Remy out of my room I sobbed and asked how long it would be before the test results would arrive and they said they had a backlog and it could take days.”

Ms Pique, a mother of two, said she pleaded that she was breastfeeding and “they simply said we will feed him”.

“What kind of hospital removes a newborn baby from a breastfeeding mum, leaving her unsure of when she would see the child again?,” she said.

“Having a baby is already a very emotional time and this really has broken me.

“My GP has told me to see a psychologist as it has made me scared to leave Remy for a moment.”

Aleasha Pique, husband PJ and daughter Aaliyah Bliss with son Remy just hours before her baby was taken away from her until she returned negative Covid result.

Ms Pique said she still wonders what the hospital’s next move would have been if she had been positive.

“Would they have kept Remy from me for a full isolation period?”

Caboolture Hospital has a troubled recent history, with reporting by The Courier-Mail which lifted the lid on botched surgeries and toxic workplace culture sparking a review which found there was poor leadership at the facility

Ms Pique’s nightmare began just after Remy’s birth when she told nurses her teenage daughter was a casual contact of a confirmed Covid case.

“Even though she was only a very casual contact, she had been at the hospital, so that is why I mentioned it,” she said.

“I fully understood when they put myself and Remy in an isolation room. I felt that I was clear of Covid and I knew that if I was I was fully vaccinated a mother’s milk helps protect the baby.”

“Remy needed to have some tests to check for infection and the nurses told me in the morning that he would be away for an hour in special care nursery.”

She said she “understood I couldn’t go with him”

“When they came at lunchtime to take him for the tests and they said I may not see him for days due to the Covid test I freaked out,” she said. “I was alone as there was a no visitor rule.”

Caboolture Hospital has announced an investigation into the incident. Picture: Peter Wallis

The frantic mother said that the nurses were really fearful for her mental health and were doing all they could to return Remy to her.

“My meltdown may have spurred a fast track of the results and staff told me I was negative and Remy was returned to me later that evening. But that was the longest day of my life,” the mum said.

The claims have shocked Kellie Wilton from the Australian College of Midwives.

“No baby should be separated from its mother without consent and full knowledge of what is going on. This sounds like a traumatic situation. Hospitals are under immense pressure to be Covid safe and procedures are put in place from higher management but we are getting reports of midwives going against hospital policies as they see that some of them are inhumane,” she said.

Queensland Health told The Courier-Mail that all efforts are made to keep mothers and their newborns together even if the mother has a positive result. And no RAT tests were available.

“COVID-19 swabbing is standard practice for any woman giving birth. On occasions where a baby needs to attend the Special Care Nursery, where there may also be other babies who have complex needs and require extra care, this may not be possible,” a Metro North spokesman said.