Baby born outside -4C temp maternity staff didn't hear mother pressing buzzer

Re: What can you do in 6 minutes?

It's not unusual for the buzzer not to be heard or for the midwives not to be able to physically get to the buzzer- what if they were all caring for a labouring women and weren't free to leave? What if they were attending an emergency?!

It is bad that the buzzer wasn't answered but sometimes this is the reality of midwifery- even more so now in view of budget and staff cuts.

I also think partner or even the mother herself could have made a phonecall in 6 minutes to the unit, and did they ring the buzzer more than once? A buzzer that was ringing incessantly and urgently would alert someone, somewhere, that perhaps it should be answered.

They shouldn't have had to have done it, but I do wonder sometimes whether people could use their common sense a bit more in situations like this, rather than turning round and saying 'it was all YOUR fault that this happened' and portraying a group of professionals as lazy (which is the unspoken accusation here) when in fact they were probably rushed off their feet and doing the best they could.

At my unit they have a porter who answers the outside buzzer at night and directs people to the labour ward. There have been a couple who've caught a baby because they're making such a swift entrance, but they also phone ahead if they think a woman requires urgent assistance so she doesn't have to walk down the corridor to the ward and then ring a second buzzer to be let in to us.

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I gather she phoned ahead from the amount of times it ws mentioned in the article, clearly midwives have nothing better to do than stand by the doors once a woman has phoned to say she is coming in as this article suggests they ought to do.

Sometimes labour is unpredictably short, I've known it to happen to send a woman home not in established labour for her to deliver at home shortly after, you can see the headlines: 'midwives wouldn't believe I was in labour and sent me home to have my baby' however a speedy arrival like that can't be predicted, perhaps it was the same with this lady? She should have a homebirth next time