Soham mother calls for lessons to be learned after The Rosie Hospital admits failures in her care before the death of her unborn baby

A Soham mother has called for lessons to be learned after a hospital admitted failures in her care before the death of her unborn baby.

Emma Tiley was admitted to The Rosie Hospital in Cambridge on June 27, 2014, when her waters broke 27 weeks into her pregnancy. She began to feel unwell and on July 3 she was told she would undergo a caesarian section the following morning and would be transferred to the delivery ward when possible.

But early on July 4, medical staff could not find the baby’s heartbeat and Emma was told her daughter had died.

An investigation by the Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust found that the baby, who was named Rosie, had died from ‘overwhelming sepsis’, a conclusion which Emma initially accepted.

“Losing Rosie was truly horrific and a very difficult time for me and the whole family,” she said.

“I still have nightmares about it. I attended sessions at Petals, the baby loss counselling charity, which helped me with my grief but I couldn’t forget about Rosie but when I was told her death was due to sepsis, I did not question it and tried to move forwards as best I could.”

But later, when she was expecting her second son Rory and after he was born, also at The Rosie Hospital, Emma learned of other premature babies who had been born with sepsis but had survived.

“I then found out that I had tested positive for Group B Strep [a common cause of infection in newborns] during my pregnancy with Rory, but no follow-up took place and as a result Rory was born in really poor condition.

“At one point I thought I was going to lose another baby but thankfully he was able to make a full recovery.”

Emma, now 34, and her husband Carl instructed legal experts at national firm Irwin Mitchell to investigate the care she received and whether more could have been done to save Rosie.

The team has now secured a settlement from the hospital trust which admitted ‘a failure to provide a standard of treatment which could be reasonably expected’.

The trust said Emma should have been transferred to the delivery unit by 2am on July 4.

It also admitted she should have been given ‘enhanced care and monitoring’ during the early hours of July 4 with frequent checking of the baby’s heartbeat.

Expert evidence obtained by her lawyers concluded that, had Emma received the correct monitoring during her time in hospital, staff would have discovered that baby Rosie was in distress.

A caesarean section would have been carried out earlier and Rosie would have been born alive.

“To find out that Rosie might still be here if we had been monitored properly left me devastated. Nothing will ever bring back my baby girl and that breaks my heart every day,” said Emma.

Since losing Rosie, Emma has raised money for a number of charities dealing with issues surrounding stillbirth.

She has also started her own facebook group, Rosie’s Angel Gowns, making gowns for stillborn babies to be laid to rest in. The gowns are made from the wedding dresses of mothers who have lost their babies and are donated to local hospitals including The Rosie.

“It is difficult not to think about Rosie, how she would be developing the friendship she would now have with her brothers,” said Emma.

“She will always be part of our family and we will never forget her.

“All I can hope for now is that lessons have been learnt so no other family suffers in the way we have.”