Decision Report 201701267

Summary

Mr C complained about the care provided to his wife (Ms A) during a home birth, in particular that two midwives did not attend at the same time.

We took independent advice from a midwife. We found that it was standard practice for one midwife to attend first and that the role of the second midwife is to assist in the event of an emergency requiring one-to-one care. We considered that there was no requirement for emergency care for either Ms A or their child, and therefore, no requirement for a second midwife to be present. We did not uphold this aspect of Mr C's complaint.

In the days after the birth, community midwives attended Mr C's home and following an incident, the board decided not to allow any further visits to Mr C's home if he was present. Mr C complained that this decision was unreasonable.

We found that the board's actions had been appropriate and the decision taken was reasonable based on the available information. Therefore, we did not uphold this aspect of Mr C's complaint. However, we considered that a further risk assessment should be undertaken in the event of any future pregnancies, to review the requirement for the restriction to remain in place, and we fed this back to the board.