Vaughn accepts breaching patient rights after Waikato baby stillborn

A family has told an inquiry of their pain since a stillbirth in 2021. Photo / 123RF

A family says they had to “watch in horror and guess what was going on” after one of their loved ones delivered a stillborn baby.

The family says that their pain has been ongoing since the stillbirth in 2021, after which the lead midwife was found to have breached patient rights on several grounds.

“This day changed our lives forever, we will never be the same people, ever,” the family have told an inquiry.

“The pain of a baby being born in such a way is of course unbearable but there are key incidents that hurt our whānau and this mamae [pain] remains.

“When our baby was being resuscitated and worked on ... no one communicated to us what was happening.”