Frances Cappuccini knew she wanted a caesarean for the birth of her second child.
The UK primary school teacher had suffered a placental tear while giving birth to her first child, Luca, four years earlier. A consultant obstetrician had recommended a caesarean the second time around, and she was booked in to have one. But she went into labour two days before that date.
Her husband Tom says she was “terrified” of giving birth naturally.
“She had been terrified for months in the run-up to giving birth because of the previous experience and what happened,” he told an inquest into her death earlier this week. “She was very certain she wanted me to make sure she had a c-section on arrival.”
But when the couple arrived at Tunbridge Wells Hospital in Kent, Tom says the midwives and doctors told them “not to make a decision based on pain and fear”, saying there was no reason Frances could not give birth naturally.
He says midwives had “almost a smirk across their face, almost laughing”.
“I put my trust and Frankie’s trust in the people that were there. They disregarded previous medical advice and we were made to feel small and insignificant,” he says.
“In hindsight, I wish I had never agreed.”
Twelve hours after arriving at the hospital, Frances was rushed into surgery for a c-section. Her son Giacomo was delivered, but a serious error was made. A large piece of placenta was left in the uterine cavity.
While Frances was feeding Giacomo for the first time, she started bleeding heavily between her legs. She was rushed into surgery again, and the piece of placenta was found, but she didn’t come around from the general anaesthetic. Her heart stopped, and she was unable to be revived.
Top Comments
I had to be aggressively assertive with my midwives ( long labour - I had three) during my labour. I found them to be hugely dismissive of my wishes concerning my birth plan. I was thirty - six years old and they treated me like a twit. I felt so distressed and I am sure it contributed to my PND afterwards.
This is such a strange story. If a woman has a caesarean booked and she goes into labour, then you just take her to theatre a bit more quickly, unless she's going to give birth then and there and you have no choice (I've been present when that happened, it was actually a really terrific birth).
However, the smirking midwives don't have anything to do with the fact that this woman died. It's the surgeon's job to ensure that that placenta and membranes have been completely removed from the uterine wall and to check it then and there while the uterus is literally still open and you can go back in and get anything you might have missed.
It's completely possible that this woman was treated poorly by staff when she came in to the hospital, and that is absolutely unforgivable. However, that doesn't have any bearing on the fact that she subsequently died.
This was exactly what I was thinking!
I find these type of stories terrible beat ups on midwives, but the actual responsibility lies with the surgeon!