Gulf Times

LONDON: A woman who gave birth to a breathing baby five months early saw it die after being turned away by a maternity unit.
Doctors at Queen Charlotte’s and Chelsea Hospital in Hammersmith told the mother the baby could not be admitted because it was deemed to be a “miscarriage”.
The infant, born at 16 weeks and only five inches long, was delivered by paramedics at the woman’s home.
However, the hospital’s maternity unit told the paramedics they would not be able to admit the baby and to take it to Accident & Emergency at nearby Hammersmith Hospital where it later died.
A source, who witnessed the incident, said: “Paramedics had a baby struggling for life and were basically told, ‘Don’t bring it to us, we don’t want it.’”
Babies under 22 weeks are not generally resuscitated or given intensive care under current NHS practice. Around 98% of babies born earlier do not survive.

A Hammersmith Hospitals NHS Trust spokesman said: “A baby born before 22 weeks is considered a miscarriage. The likelihood of the baby living is negligible and a maternity unit can distress the mother.”
Meanwhile MPs are to look at the scientific case for reducing the abortion limit to 22 weeks, it was announced yesterday.
At the moment terminations are allowed up to 24 weeks, except in cases when there is a danger to the mother’s health or there is a serious abnormality with the foetus.
Phil Willis, chairman of the Commons science and technology committee, said its inquiry would examine scientific, rather than moral or ethical, issues. “We are looking at whether babies could be kept alive outside the womb at 22 weeks rather than 24 weeks as many people claim,” he said. – London Evening Standard

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