Selma Moukhfi Bell was born last Friday morning at 5.45 by emergency caesarean section. She was the most beautiful, perfect baby, weighing in at 4kgs. She had Andrew’s fair eyebrows, Ghizlane’s lovely lips and her eyes looked just like her cousin Becky’s when she was born. Luckily for Selma, she hadn’t inherited the Bell nose! Despite it’s rather scary name, an emergency caesarean section is a very safe, routine operation with a low complication rate.
Although Ghizlane had had a long and hard labour, all the signs were that she and Selma were coping well. Looking back we will always ask, could we have known something was wrong? Was there anything more that could have been done?
What happened to Selma has yet to be explained. When she was born her heart was beating, but only very weakly. Despite the very best efforts of her exceptional paediatric team, after 27 minutes she left this life and went to join the angels. We still don’t why.
Andrew and Ghizlane made the painful decision to allow an autopsy to be performed on Selma. The post mortem was specifically looking for three things:
1. maybe Selma had been damaged during the caesarean section-a broken spine or skull fracture.
2. there was the possibility of an inherited genetic or metabolic syndrome which would not allow Selma to survive outside the womb.
3. the third possibility was an aggressive infection which overtook Selma in the final few hours of labour , after Ghizlane’s waters had broken.
As it turned out, Selma was a perfect baby, inside and out. It happens very occasionally that a baby dies for no reason. Its nobody’s fault and nothing could have been done to prevent it. At Queen Charlotte’s hospital, where Selma was born, it happens about once a year. That’s 1 in every 6,000 births. It’s really very unlucky.
Dr Alan Groves a neonatologist who has dealt with many couples who have lost babies, and who has provided both families with such support over the last few days, told me yesterday he has never met a couple who have dealt with losing their baby with such courage and peacefulness. He said that in his experience, all couples who have lost a baby, by their 6 week postnatal check, are blaming themselves in some way for their baby’s death. He said he felt that Andrew and Ghizlane might be his first exception to this rule. I think that he’s right.
Andrew and Ghizlane will have more babies who they will love and cherish, but nothing will ever replace Selma.
Dr Caroline Rogers
21st April 2009
