A DHB is investigating after a woman was forced to give birth to a stillborn baby alone at Rotorua Hospital - then was left to hold her dead child for 25 minutes afterwards without medical attention.
On March 1, Jamie Bowman had a scan showing her baby's heart had stopped beating. She was told to go to Rotorua Hospital, but when she got there she says she was told to go home because there wasn't any qualified staff.
She took medication for miscarriages five days later, and finally went into labour on March 8.
"By then, he had already been dead inside me for who knows how long - but it was days since finding out, so I had a whole week waiting while he was dead already," she told Stuff.
After arriving back at the hospital to give birth, she was told nurses were changing shifts and would only help when they could.
Ms Bowman was forced to give birth without any medical help and just her mother there. Afterwards, she sat holding her dead baby for 25 minutes.
Her mother went out of the room "holding a bedpan with my deceased baby and a lot of blood in it" - but staff still said they were busy and didn't have time.
"This whole ordeal was already such a sad, horrific thing to go through. I felt completely let down by the health system," Ms Bowman told Stuff.
"Nobody cared at all about what I had gone through, nor was anyone willing to help. It is absolutely disgusting people can treat mothers this way and get away with it."
Lakes District Health Board says it "regrets when patients do not have a good experience during their visit".
Ms Bowman's complaint is being investigated.
Newshub.
