TRUSTING a doctor’s advice is something instilled in us all.
But Linzi Mcmillan claims that if she had listened to medical experts her baby wouldn’t be alive today.
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The 26-year-old, from Alness in the Scottish Highlands, was told her baby was “not viable” early on in her pregnancy.
She had suffered a severe bleed and consultants explained that because her cervix was opening, the baby wasn’t viable.
But Linzi says that a chance conversation with a member of the maternity unit staff at Raigmore Hospital in Inverness saved her son’s life.
Before meeting with a consultant, she says the staff member suggested that she asked for a surgical procedure, known as a cervical stitch.
However, her hopes were dashed when the medic told her there was nothing could be done for her.
Hysterical
She said: “I was hysterical, this was my third baby and I felt so unsupported. I was told that because my cervix was opening my baby was not viable.
“My consultant told me she was unable to perform a suture stitch, and I was given pessaries to try to halt the cervix opening.
“They didn’t make any improvement. The consultant and I didn’t see eye to eye.
“Although I am not well educated and I am from poor background I found my voice to stick up for myself and my unborn baby.
I knew in my gut that this baby was a survivor and I was determined that he was going to live
Linzi Mcmillan
“I knew in my gut that this baby was a survivor and I was determined that he was going to live.
“I was eventually given another consultant and the stitch was put in place.”
However, when Ms Mcmillan was 20 weeks pregnant she was in a car crash and had to be rushed to hospital again.
This time there were serious consequences.
Frightening
She added: “It was a really frightening time, I was told that my baby would likely need to be delivered, and again Raigmore told me that my baby would not survive.”
For specialist treatment, Ms Mcmillan was moved to Aberdeen Maternity Hospital where she went on to deliver a small but healthy 2lbs 2oz baby boy on June 10.
She and her partner Sam MacLennan named him Sam.
Ms Mcmillan said: “What I want is for other women to hear my story and know that they should listen to their gut. They shouldn’t take no for an answer.
If I had listened to the consultants I would not have baby Sam now
“Most importantly they should never lose their voice. If I had listened to the consultants in Raigmore I would not have baby Sam now.
“My treatment in Raigmore was terrible, they seem to have all the very best state-of-the-art equipment but nobody was able to provide the procedures that I needed. Women should not need to fight for every single treatment.”
An NHS Highland spokesman said: “We regularly monitor maternity services across our board area to ensure we continue to deliver high-quality, safe care to pregnant women and their babies.
When is a baby a baby?
The UK operates a little differently to the US when it comes to the legal rights of unborn babies.
Abortions
Abortions in England, Wales and Scotland tend to be carried out before 24 weeks of pregnancy.
They can happen after that but only in exceptional circumstances – e.g if the mother’s life is at risk or the child would be born with a severe disability.
Survival rate
The earliest a foetus can survive out of the womb is 22 weeks gestation (when there is a 0-10 per cent chance of survival).
At 24 weeks a foetus is considered viable, meaning doctors will intervene as their organs are mature enough to give them a chance of surviving. At 24 weeks the survival rate goes up to 40-70 per cent.
In the last month, guidance has changed – suggesting that doctors should consider saving the lives of babies born as early as 22 weeks.
James Elgin Gill, born in 1987 in Canada was the earliest premature birth in the world – being born 128 days early at 21 weeks, 5 days gestation, and weighing 1lb 6oz. His record was broken in 2014.
The law
In certain US states, you can’t call a baby a baby until 20 weeks gestation
Over here, a foetus is not a considered person with rights in the eyes of the law until birth.
It can’t have any legal rights of its own until it’s been born and has a separate existence from the mother.
In 2014, an Australian woman whose unborn child died in a car crash with a drunk driver a week before she was due to give birth tried to get a law passed which would give all foetuses past 30 weeks’ gestation full rights as a human being.
“We have not been contacted and would certainly want to look into it. We would encourage the family to get in touch with our lead midwife so we can investigate this properly.
“The health board has systems in place to investigate and learn from any adverse events which do occur.”
He added they could not comment on individual cases but that risk assessment is undertaken by doctors and midwives on a case by case basis and throughout pregnancy.
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