Mothers Who Were Wrongly Told to Abort Healthy Babies Speak Out

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Two mothers who were wrongly told to abort their babies have given birth to healthy babies and have shared their stories with the Daily Mail.

Emily Wheatley from South Wales was told that she had miscarried her baby at ten weeks as the sonographer couldn’t find a heartbeat on the scan. She was given the option by the midwife of going home and waiting a fortnight for the baby to come out naturally or to take medication to speed the process up.

Emily told the Daily Mail:

“Call it mother’s instinct if you like, but Mum knew me and knew in her heart that the baby was still alive.”

Her mother told her to get a second opinion as soon as possible and not to take any medication.

The next day Emily visited a different NHS hospital and had another scan which showed that the former hospital had made a mistake and she was pregnant. This was very positive news for Emily who thought that she might not be able to have children because of a medical condition.

“I just didn’t dare believe that my baby was alive in case they were wrong and I felt that way throughout my pregnancy which led me to feel guilty because I knew it should be a happy time and I should have been a joyous mum-to-be”

Emily gave birth to daughter Ella on the 11th of February, 2013.

Research has revealed that that wrongly interpreted ultrasound scans could result in 400 misdiagnosed miscarriages annually in Britain.

Emily lodged a complaint with Peter Tyndall, the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales. He discovered that since 2006 staff at the University Hospital of Wales were using outdated guidelines for scanning procedures. They are worried that as a result of this hundreds of women who visited that hospital may have aborted healthy babies.

The University Hospital of Wales helps deliver nearly 6000 babies annually with around 600 to 1200 women suffering a miscarriage. Mr. Tyndall told Emily that hers was unlikely to be the only incident and told her “There will have been others.”

He demanded that staff skills were reviewed at the hospital and the hospital had to pay Emily £1500 in compensation.

Wrongly Told to Abort

Chelsea Muff, 34, had a similar experience.

The mother-of-three from Bradford, West Yorkshire, had suffered slight bleeding when she was seven weeks pregnant. She went to the Early Pregnancy Unit at the Bradford Royal infirmary in June 2011.

Ms. Muff had an ultrasound scan and the sonographer said that there was nothing there and that Chelsea had suffered a miscarriage.

Chelsea was given three options: a suction to remove the baby, tablets to make the baby pass through, or wait a week for it to come naturally.

She waited ten days and nothing happened, so was given another scan.

“The consultant came in and said ‘Congratulations, everything’s fine with the baby’,” Chelsea told the Daily Mail.

Since Chelsea’s ordeal, Bradford Royal Infirmary paid for Chelsea to have counselling and reviewed its practices.

Mothers Who Were Wrongly Told to Abort Their Healthy Babies Speak Out

Two mothers who were wrongly told to abort their babies have given birth to healthy babies and have shared their stories with the Daily Mail.

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