Husband felt helpless when wife fell gravely ill after homebirth
THE husband of Caroline Lovell has spoken of how helpless and worried he felt when his wife became anxious and stressed after her homebirth.
Law & Order
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THE husband of Caroline Lovell has spoken of how helpless and worried he felt when his wife became anxious and stressed after her homebirth, asking for a ambulance to be called.
Nick, who is now the full time carer of their two children Lulu and Zahra, said he remembers the 36 year old saying her back was sore and asking for Valium.
“I felt very helpess and didn’t know what to do,” he told the Coroner’s Court.
Mr Lovell called his mother, Brenda, to ask her to come to the house.
“I was very worried and needed a family member present.”
Mrs Lovell, a homebirth campaigner and former Leader newspaper photographer, died on January 24, the day after Zahra was born with two registered midwives at home.
The court heard one of the midwives, Gaye Demanuele, had handed back her registration, but still attended homebirths where women “alienated by the medical system” “delivered and caught their own babies.”
An article written by her about women’s rights being “subsumed by the rights of their foetus” and hospital staff committing “obstetric violence” and treating women as “incubators.”
But she said her political views did not impact on her decision-making during Mrs Lovell’s homebirth.
The court heard an ambulance was called 14 minutes after midwives say Ms Lovell allegedly told them she was dying and wanted to go to hospital.
Ms Demanuele denied there was a delay, but with the benefit of hindsight she should called it earlier.
The court also heard that there was not a resuscitation mask with an oxygen chamber in the house, but a mask without oxygen and mouth-to-mouth was used.
She said there was no evidence of excessive blood loss and she did not stand “idly by while a woman was bleeding to death.”
During Ms Lovell’s previous birth she had a tear, operation for retained placenta, a uterine fibroid and post-partum haemorrhage, but the midwives say medical records were incomplete and she had a low complication risk.
Mr Lovell said his wife got medical records from Lulu’s birth from Barwon Health, but he was unaware if there were any missing, saying if there were it’s likely his wife would have been upset and contacted the hospital.
Mr Lovell said his wife chose to give birth at home because that was her wish.
His wife had fainted and then began to hyperventilate and become anxious more than an hour after Zahra was born.
She died the following day at the Austin Hospital.
The inquest is continuing.