Husband forced to deliver own baby after pager blunder

Steph Malong and her husband Jet had been given an emergency pager to alert medical staff when she went into labour.

Scroll down for more

But medics took two hours to arrive, leaving Mr Malong, 39, to deliver the baby with the help of four-year-old son, Toby.

His 31-year-old wife was left lying in a pool of blood cradling 7lb 11oz Lara whose umbilical cord was still attached.

Mrs Malong said: "I was so frightened. I kept thinking someone would arrive but they never came.

"Jet frantically tried the pager but by then the baby was crowning and we just had to go for it. Lara wasn't hanging around for them to get their act together.

"We were just very lucky it all went well as my husband has no medical experience at all. I would hate for any other family to have to go through the same distressing experience.

"I dread to think if there had been any complications - we both could have died."

The couple, from Bath, had been advised by the city's Royal United Hospital that a home birth was simple and even preferable because of a shortage of midwives.

They were told to use the pager - which was connected to a call centre - when Mrs Malong's contractions came close together.

When that started to happen Mr Malong paged the hospital twice but no one returned their calls or came to the house.

They got through to the maternity ward only after the delivery of their daughter.

An ambulance and a midwife were dispatched and arrived 25 minutes later - almost two hours after the first pager call.

The midwife cut the cord and Mrs Malong was taken to hospital where she was given an epidural and 12 stitches. Mrs Malong, a GP receptionist-added:

"I thought a home birth would be more relaxing. I could have a bath and get into my own bed. That was the plan anyway."

Her husband, who comes from the Philippines, said it was unusual in his homeland for men to attend births.

"I had not been very involved in our son's birth," said the Marks and Spencer employee.

"It is just the tradition where I am from and is out of respect to the woman." The couple warned parentsto-be to think carefully before choosing a home birth.

Hospital bosses apologised and said the delay on April 10 was caused by a problem with the pager service run by an outside firm.

A spokesman for Wiltshire Primary Care Trust, which oversees health services in the Bath area, said: "This incident has been reported and a full investigation is under way."