A MUM today relived the tragic death of her baby who suffered a fractured skull and died hours after her birth at Coventry's Walsgrave Hospital.

Sarah Hubbard, of Corfe Close, Walsgrave, Coventry, told an inquest how her baby Megan died 10 hours after a harrowing delivery.

Megan suffered fractures to her skull as she was being delivered on February 1, 2001. Coroner David Sarginson said: "Megan lived for just 10 hours and died from fractures to her skull in the hospital where she was born."

Mrs Hubbard described how she found herself being pulled along by forceps during the delivery.

She said she had been suffering 'unbearable pain' during her contractions and asked if she could stop pushing and have a caesarean.

She said Dr Eric Watson, who was delivering the baby, had advised her not to have a caesarean because 'it would mean you will have a hole in your stomach.'

Mrs Hubbard said the doctor told her rather than have a caesarean he would try to deliver the baby himself, and that he would try and pull out the baby with forceps.

Mr Sarginson asked Mrs Hubbard if she had been warned that the baby's head could be crushed and she replied 'no, never.'

She was taken to theatre and placed on an operating table where she was told to push again but she said she couldn't and at that point she fell asleep.

She said: "At one point I felt a jolt and I slid down the bed. The only logic was that I was being pulled by the forceps. This happened twice.

"At some point he must have changed over to the forceps and he said it was not going to work that way and he would change over to the caesarean."

Mrs Hubbard said that midwife Angela Bradley was crying when she came into the recovery ward.

Mrs Hubbard asked her what was wrong and Ms Bradley said she had some bad news but she did not know whether it was personal or to do with Megan.

Mrs Hubbard said she did not know at the time that the baby had had to be given oxygen.

She said doctors thought the baby was having breathing difficulties, and went to do some tests, but there was nothing said to alarm her.

Mrs Hubbard said they were taken to see Megan in a specialist care unit and there seemed to be a lot of doctors around at the time but that Dr Watson was not there.

She said: "They took us into a side room they told us that it was not looking good at all. They asked me to sign a consent form for a post mortem.

"Nobody seemed to know how she died or what she died of. We came out of hospital not knowing how she died."

Mrs Hubbard said she was later told the original findings from the pathologist showed there was a broken bone in the skull which had been found from a basic examination.

Mrs Hubbard said that Dr Watson was adamant that he had not applied too much pressure with the forceps.

The hearing was told that Mr Watson tried three times to rotate the baby's head
using a silicon suction cap but it would not grip.

He then twice used forceps to deliver the baby's head before performing an emergency caesarean.

Mark Kilby, a consultant obstetrician at Birmingham Women's Hospital, said gentle force was needed when using forceps, applying about 20kg of pressure.

Asked by the Coventry coroner, David Sarjinson, whether more than 20kg of pressure was applied causing Mrs Hubbard to move on the delivery table, he said it was difficult to say.

"Sometimes that does happen when you're applying traction to the baby ... It does occasionally happen," he said.

Mr Kilby went on to say that trauma through the use of forceps and assisted deliveries was relatively rare, but up to 10% of babies can be affected in some way, according to studies.

Marks found on the back of Megan's neck and the fracture could have been caused by the forceps slipping as rotation was attempted, he added.

He told Paul Balen, for the Hubbard family, that it was "probable" that Megan's fractures and other injuries were caused by the attempts at assisted delivery.