Health chiefs order baby centre shake-up after tragedy

Tracy Bray was wrongly assured her first pregnancy was low risk despite concerns over her baby’s growth before her delivery at Huddersfield Family Birth Centre.

When complications developed during labour, staff failed to transfer her to Calderdale Royal Hospital in Halifax for expert help.

Baby Tily was not breathing when she was born but desperate efforts to resuscitate her were hampered as equipment failed to work, while on-call staff summoned to the emergency even struggled to find their way into the building.

A review made 12 recommendations for changes at the centre which opened in 2008 after health chiefs controversially axed full maternity services in Huddersfield and switched them to Halifax in the face of huge protests by campaigners.

Mrs Bray and her husband Stuart, of Bradley, Huddersfield, said they did not want others to suffer the same tragedy.

Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust has admitted breach of duty of care and the couple have been given compensation in an out-of-court settlement although no admission over liability has been made.

An inquest found Tily, who was pronounced dead 55 minutes after her birth on September 19, 2009, died from broncopneumonia and two other infections but it was not until six months later that the review laid bare the full extent of the problems which arose.

Mrs Bray said the hospital trust needed to be answerable over the death of their daughter. “We want to make sure that things like this don’t happen to other people. It should be a safe place to go but it has taken a tragedy like this for it to happen,” she said.