THE heartbroken parents of a baby who died two days after being born at the Royal Gwent Hospital, believe the caesarian section performed to deliver their daughter should have been carried out hours earlier.

Gwent health bosses are investigating the circumstances surrounding the birth of Lilly-Mai Noonan last November, following a 46-hour labour, and almost 11 hours after her mother Trish’s waters were broken by a midwife.

Miss Noonan, 20, and her partner Llewys Rolph, 18, from West Pontnewydd, Cwmbran, went to the Royal Gwent on the morning of November 13 after Miss Noonan’s contractions, which began around 11.30pm the previous evening, got stronger.

At around 10.30am on November 14, Miss Noonan’s waters were broken.

She claims she was told there was meconium (a baby’s first excretion) in the amniotic fluid, but it was nothing to worry about.

She also says that later that day when, fearing her baby was distressed, she kept asking for a Caesarian, she was called “impatient.”

It was close to 11 hours after her waters were broken that Lilly-Mai, 14 days overdue, was finally born, by Csection, at 9.19pm.

She had to be resuscitated, a process her father Mr Rolph said took 17 minutes, and she was taken to the hospital’s neo-natal unit.

Mr Rolph, 18, says that after Lilly-Mai was born they were told she would be home by Christmas, and next morning they asked to see her.

She was breathing unaided but shortly afterwards began needing help again to breathe.

Then Mr Rolph asked why his daughter’s arm was in an unusual position and whether she fitting, and was told it was a reaction to medication.

Later, the couple were again called to the unit, and asked if they wanted to turn the ventilator off.

Miss Noonan said: “They said the only option was to turn the machine off – we had no choice.”

Lilly-Mai died on November 16. The death certificate listed severe hypoxicischaemic encephalopathy (caused by lack of oxygen during birth) as the primary cause, with meconium aspiration (breathing in of meconium), low blood pressure and seizures also mentioned.

Meconium is found in amniotic fluid in between one-in-five and one-in-10 births. In two per cent of these cases, the baby takes it into its lungs, which can cause respiratory problems.

EDITORIAL COMMENT: Valid concerns

THE death of little Lilly-Mai Noonan just two days after her birth at the Royal Gwent Hospital raises some concerns.

We do not seek to point the finger of blame as we don’t yet know all the facts surrounding the death of this little girl.

But there are questions which need to be answered.

And her parents Trish Noonan and and Llewys Rolph deserve to have their concerns investigated.

There does appear to have been an awfully long time between mum Miss Noonan first being admitted to hospital, while already in labour, until a caesarian section was performed to deliver her baby.

Hospital bosses have already started to look into the circumstances of the death. It is in the public interest that the outcome of that investigation is published.