A MUM who died alongside her newborn baby during a tragic home birth shouted “I’m a warrior” during the intense labour, an inquest heard.
Jennifer Cahill, 34, died after giving birth to her second child Agnes Lily at her home in Prestwich, Manchester.
The international export manager, had made it clear she wanted a completely “physiological” birth for Agnes, with no drugs and minimal outside interference, an inquest heard.
But she tragically died the day after her second baby, Agnes, was born – who also sadly only lived for four days.
A midwife who tried to help her in the final stages of labour told the court of Jennifer’s final haunting plea.
Julie Turner told an inquest in Rochdale: “She was struggling and shouted: ‘I really want to do this. I am a warrior! Why will my body not let me?’”
The experienced midwife added that she felt as though Jennifer was “beating herself up almost” and that her reactions were common for women in labour.
An emotional Julie then broke down in tears as she described the moment she performed CPR on baby Agnes after she was born not breathing and with an umbilical cord around her neck.
Julie, who was described as “more experienced with home births than others” told the court how she felt as though “she had to take control” once she saw Agnes.
She said: “I was also in my head thinking about Jen and her being high risk and postpartum.
“I said to Andrea twice, ‘please check on Jen’ in case of any haemorrhaging.”
Jennifer suffered a postpartum haemorrhage again, twice losing significant amounts of blood estimated at around two litres in total, the inquest heard.
She was rushed to North Manchester General Hospital but died three days later of hypoxia.
She was taken to the same hospital with haemorrhagic shock but went into cardiac arrest and was declared dead shortly after admission from multi-organ failure.
Jennifer chose to deliver Agnes Lily at home in June last year after feeling “unsupported” in hospital when she had her son three years earlier.
During the birth of the couple’s first child, Rudy in 2021, Jennifer suffered a postpartum haemorrhage.
Rudy was also a large baby and she lost more than 800 ml of blood due to a tear and episiotomy, requiring a blood transfusion.
Jennifer was also a carrier of group B strep, which can spread to babies in delivery, and cause issues like meningitis.
The court heard she was finding the prospect of giving birth in hospital stressful after the “traumatic” events that happened from Rudy’s delivery.
As a result doctors advised to also have her second child in hospital.
However her husband Rob has told the hearing that no-one had fully explained the risks to them.
The couple believed that warnings to have Agnes delivered in hospital were based on the fact that she had suffered a Strep B infection with their son, who developed sepsis, he said.
Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust has accepted that Mrs Cahill should have been referred to a senior midwife after deciding on a home birth so the dangers could be discussed.
DOUBLE TRAGEDY
On Thursday, Ms Turner told the inquest that an increasing number of requests by mothers to have out-of-hospital births had made midwives worried about being called out.
She said: “There was unease in the office about high-risk births. Midwives were getting nervous about being on-call.
“We seemed to to be getting more women with complex plans.
“It used to be unusual for high-risk women to have a home birth, but in the last couple of years there has been a significant increase.
“Staff were fearful. It is one of the reasons we now go out in twos so that we can support each other.”
The inquest has also been told that police this week investigated an online group supporting home births after it emerged that Jennifer had been a member.
The group is lead by doulas, who are unregulated non-medical professionals that are often hired to support women during home births.
In the UK it is illegal for doulas to provide any medical care or provide medical advice.
However it is believed that no further action is being taken against Home Birth Support Group UK after it said it does not offer any medical advice to pregnant mothers.
Rochdale Coroners Court was told that Jennifer Cahill had posted at least once in the private group and received a lot of comments back.
The inquest continues.
