A mum has shared her “horrific” account of giving birth to her stillborn son, after he was born into her pyjamas and fell onto the floor.
Lindsay Leslie and her partner fell pregnant with their fifth child Ossian last year, but were sadly told he had died and at 18 weeks she would need to give birth to him in the Tulip Suite at Ninewells Hospital.
However, she and her partner have been left scarred by the experience, claiming that midwives did not believe she had birthed Ossian into her pyjamas.
Lindsay has also said she was left to haemorrhage for three whole hours.
She said: “I went into the Tulip Suite to give birth to our son who we already knew had passed away due to illness.
“In the first lockdown, we went for our first scan and found a lot of fluid on the back of his neck, going over his brain and onto the stomach which signifies a chromosomal disorder.
“Three weeks later it was verified he had very bad Down’s Syndrome and would not survive to full term so we were advised the best course of action was to go to the Tulip Suite at Ninewells Hospital and give birth.
“We went in on July 19 at 11am and when we met our midwife there was no rapport with her right away and she was quite arrogant.
“For example she took bloods and half an hour later came back laughing saying she shouldn’t have taken them, and then couldn’t get the cannula in and we had to wait four hours for an anaesthetist to come and do it.”
Initially believing that she may be waiting several hours to give birth, Lindsay donned her pyjamas and took some medication to assist in the process.
However, around 90 minutes later she became aware that she was giving birth and felt the baby emerge into her pyjamas.
When she asked the midwife to check her pyjamas, Lindsay claims the midwife tossed them into the corner and told her she hadn’t given birth yet.
Lindsay added: “Medical staff were then called in and were discussing things like checking for limbs in case they had broken up right in front of my face, and things like that should have been discussed outside of the room.
“At 7.30pm I had lost a lot of blood and at 8pm a doctor came in and said the best course of action would be to take me to surgery to stop the bleeding.
“My partner was asked to pack up the Tulip Suite as I would probably need to be moved to high dependency.
“He picked up my pyjamas and our son fell out of my pyjama bottoms.”
Lindsay and her partner have since launched a formal complaint against NHS Tayside for the care and treatment they received in the Tulip Suite and said they are both still traumatised by the experience.
She added: “My partner has never been remotely suicidal in his life but when he saw his son falling out to the floor, he wanted to throw himself out of the hospital window – that is how bad it was.
“We have received a lot of bereavement counselling because we have flashbacks and nightmares, especially my partner because he witnessed a lot of it.
“Everyone’s mental health is bad with the coronavirus lockdown but I worry we will never be able to come back up again.
“You tell people you are close to and they don’t believe what you are saying is true because they don’t want to believe something so horrific could happen.
“I tried to stay away from anti-depressants but I keep having panic attacks so now I take diazepam and sleeping tablets because I have four other children to look after – I feel I have no other choice.
“I am also now severely anaemic because I lost that much blood and I am on iron tablets.”
Lindsay now wants to see some changes made to maternity services and treatment in the Tulip Suite to make sure nothing like this happens to anyone else.
A spokeswoman for NHS Tayside said: “Our thoughts are with the family at this time.
“We have contacted Ms Leslie to invite her and her partner to a meeting so we can discuss their concerns.”
There are a number of support services in Dundee for families experiencing baby loss including Alternatives Dundee and Tayside SANDS.
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