Newborn baby suffocates to death under mum who fell asleep after breastfeeding

26 January 2023 , 10:46

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Sandro Pertini Hospital (Image: Alessandro Serrano'/AGF/REX/Shutterstock)

A newborn baby has tragically died after he was suffocated under the weight of his mother who fell asleep after breastfeeding at a hospital maternity unit.

The child was born just three days earlier after his 30-year-old mother at the Sandro Pertini hospital in Rome.

An investigation is now under way to see whether hospital rules were violated as regulation stipulates staff should have ensured that the baby was returned to his cot after breastfeeding. 

Prosecutors will also look into allegations of negligence.

In an interview with la Repubblica, the unnamed mother said she was exhausted from a 17-hour labour and asked several times for the baby to be taken to the nursery.

Baby boy has spent his life in hospital as doctors are 'scared' to discharge him

Ambulances in front of the first aid department of the hospital (ANGELO CARCONI/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)

She said: "We have asked for help to look after the little one at least five times: twice for me, twice for my partner and one of my mothers. I have never slept since my son was born. He cried very loudly and often.

"I don't understand how something like this could have happened: I asked the staff of the department where I was hospitalised for help for three nights in a row, they didn't listen to me "

She recalls how she was suddenly woken up in the middle of night and "without saying a word", the staff made her get up and took her to a nearby room.

She added: "There they told me that the baby was dead. I don't remember that a psychologist was present, nor that they gave me a more in-depth explanation. At that point I didn't understand anything anymore, everything collapsed on me. Maybe I'm even passed out."

Alessandro Piombi, the lawyer of the newborn’s mother, told the news website Fanpage: “My client remembers suddenly being woken up and no longer having the baby with her. She said they took her to a room where they told her the tragic news."

Now lots of other mothers are raising the alarm over the conditions of Italian hospitals, saying similar situations have happened to them too.

Controversy is mounting in Italy over conditions in hospital maternity units (Google Maps)

One woman said on social media: “After 15 hours of labour and an emergency caesarean, I fell asleep exhausted with my daughter Giulia on my chest. I woke up screaming because she had gone and I thought she had fallen on the floor, but luckily my mother had put her in the cot.”

Mothers have said they felt “abandoned” post-childbirth in Italian hospitals, while unions have said the staff shortages have reached crisis point, a situation compounded by the coronavirus pandemic.

A petition calling for there to be more checks and better post-childbirth support for families in maternity wards has now got more than 100,000 signatures.

Rachel Hagan