Royal Bolton Hospital admits failure to admit mother in labour resulted in baby’s death

A mother has spoken of her devastation after her baby daughter died because a maternity hospital would not admit her when she went into labour, and wrongly sent her home.

The Royal Bolton Hospital has now admitted that its failure to admit Taylor Hough-Barnes, 26, when she went into early labour caused the death of baby Myla Sleigh. However, Taylor and partner McCauley Sleigh say that words alone are not enough to explain the pain of losing their third child and no parents should have to go through what they have. 

Taylor, who lives in Bolton with McCauley and their other children Alaiyah, four, and Cauley, three, said: “Myla would have been the youngest of the family and would have been our final child. Her siblings always talk about their baby sister, and it can be very hard for them to understand why she never came home. They question often if they will ever have a baby brother or sister, but Myla will more than likely always be the baby of our family because having another child would now be too traumatic for her dad and me. 

“It’s awful to think the people we trusted with our lives have broken that trust. I also feel anger and guilt that I didn’t demand to be admitted and refuse to go home. By raising awareness, we hope to change how mothers are treated and ensure they are not made to feel stupid for having concerns during pregnancy. 

“We have to be strong for our other children, but no parent should ever have to say goodbye to their child, it is the most soul-destroying feeling. Having to put all the baby things we had prepared away was very hard. It felt as though we were putting Myla to one side and forgetting about her. It will be two years in July since she died but still feels like yesterday. 

“Myla was very special to us all in words we cannot describe. She will always be with us all; every time a butterfly passes by, we know that she’s around. Eventually we hope to give support to other families that have suffered similar tragedies in memory of Myla. Myla will always have a special place in all of our hearts, RIP darling daughter, kisses to the sky.”

Bolton NHS Foundation Trust admitted that it should have kept Taylor in for monitoring, after she attended the hospital at 1.25pm on 12 July 2023 at 36 weeks with signs of labour, after a case for medical negligence was brought against it by law firm JMW. The trust further admitted that if Taylor had been kept in, further investigations and monitoring would have been undertaken and Myla would not have died. The following day Taylor’s waters broke, and after that she noticed that she could no longer feel Myla moving. After contacting the maternity department Taylor was asked to come in and it was discovered that Myla had died.

Madeleine Langmead, a specialist medical negligence solicitor at JMW who is handling the family’s case, said: “Myla’s death was not only tragic, but completely preventable. Taylor’s two other children had been born prematurely by emergency caesarean section so when she felt contractions and had some blood loss, she correctly attended the hospital. There was a high risk that her pregnancy with Myla would result in another premature birth, and this should have been identified by the doctor who assessed her and she should have been kept in. The consequences of this poor care were completely devastating, and lessons must be learned so that it is never repeated.”