Treating Caroline Lovell after fatal homebirth ‘traumatic’ for doctor

A doctor has recounted the “traumatic case” of trying in vain to save the life of a woman who went into complications during a homebirth.

Doctor Adam Pendlebury told the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Thursday he applied stitches to a tear Caroline Lovell sustained giving birth on January 23, 2012 and inserted a medical balloon designed to stop bleeding.

But it was too late, he told the committal proceeding. Doctor Pendlebury is not accused of any wrongdoing.

The midwives who guided Ms Lovell’s homebirth, Gaye Demanuele and Melody Bourne, are fighting criminal charges of causing death by negligently failing to provide adequate care.

Ms Lovell, 36, gave birth to a healthy baby girl in a pool of water in her Watsonia home at 8.52am, but almost 24 hours after going into labour she died in hospital.

She went into cardiac arrest triggered by bleeding out from a tear sustained while giving birth, called a post-partum haemorrhage, prosecutors say.

Police allege the midwives did not examine Ms Lovell after the birth and did not realise she was injured, and allege they did not promptly call an ambulance when she lost consciousness.

Dr Pendlebury was the registrar for obstetrics who treated Ms Lovell at the Austin Hospital after she was brought in by paramedics, the court heard.

He told the court it was “probably the most traumatic case of my entire career”.

By the time he saw Ms Lovell in hospital, it appeared there was little prospect of recovery, he said.

He said post-birth bleeds were common, affecting 20 per cent of mothers.

“Post-partum management of a woman who has delivered a baby is almost all focused around the prevention of post-partum haemorrhage, and perhaps monitoring for (another condition),” he said.

“They are the major principles of obstetric management.

“The safe way of managing a patient is to assume they’ve had a haemorrhage.

“Unless you exclude that, patients die.”

The court previously heard Ms Lovell chose a homebirth for her second child after being unhappy with elements of her care during the birth of her first child in hospital, where she also experienced a post-partum haemorrhage.

Dr Pendlebury will continue giving evidence on Friday.