A mother who lost her baby girl shortly after birth has met with Queensland’s health minister to advocate for change.
Meg Flaskett and her husband James lost their daughter Thea soon after she was born at Redcliffe Hospital in September.
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The hospital declined Flaskett’s request for a cesarean after raising concerns for the health of her baby.
Thea was instead born vaginally via a vacuum extraction, with her umbilical cord around her neck, before being met with an empty oxygen bottle.
Flaskett on Tuesday sat down with Queensland’s Health Minister Shannon Fentiman, bringing with her the names of 25 mothers also mourning the death of their babies in the state’s hospital system and advocating for change.
“Today, I walk in with 25 names,” Flaskett told 7NEWS.
“Eighteen of those came from Redcliffe Hospital in the last few years.
“Nothing we do now will bring our baby girl back … but this fight will help somebody else’s baby come home.”
Flaskett blames malfunctioning equipment and inexperienced staff for the issues they faced during the birth of her daughter.
One of the mothers Flaskett is advocating for is Lacey Morgan, who also lost her baby, Remy, at Redcliffe Hospital in June last year.
The type one diabetic was sick with the flu and was scheduled to be transferred to Royal Brisbane and Women’s hospital, which never happened.
She had also asked for a cesarean and was denied.
“I woke up and said is my baby alive…and I got a blunt no and handed a purple baby,” Morgan told 7NEWS.
Redcliffe’s director of critical care wrote to Morgan at the time to acknowledge there was an underappreciation by the staff of the severity of the case.
Rebecca Spreadborough is another name Flaskett brought to the health minister, who lost her baby Alby due to an obstructed labour in February at Emerald Hospital, she had also been denied a cesarean.
An independent investigation into Alby’s death has begun.
Queensland’s maternity care problem is now under a national spotlight, as mourning mothers plead with the state’s health minister for change.
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