Warrington Home Birth Service Blamed for Pippa's Delay

Thomas and Victoria Gillibrand lost their 12‑day‑old daughter, Pippa, after a delayed delivery during a home birth coordinated by Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. The couple went into labour on 25 August 2024; the home‑birth team was occupied with another labour when they first called at 05:30 am. A midwife arrived around 08:15 am, but after 09:00 am heart‑rate monitors were not checked every five minutes due to staffing shortages and malfunctioning laptops. The team should have moved the mother to hospital by 09:36 am, yet the baby was only delivered by forceps at 10 am. Pippa was transferred to Liverpool Women’s Hospital, where scans revealed a severe irreversible brain injury caused by hypoxia; she died on 5 September 2024. Coroner Victoria Davies ruled the death was due to an avoidable delay and condemned the trust’s “Russian roulette” approach. The Trust has since revised its home‑birth protocol.