Baby Isaiah’s parents expect second child

There is some happy news for the parents of Isaiah May, who died earlier this month after being removed from life support. Isaiah’s mother, Rebecka, reports that she is now pregnant with her second child.

Baby Isaiah was born after 40 hours of labor with his umbilical cord wrapped around his neck, depriving his brain of oxygen. He was unable to breathe without a ventilator, and doctors determined that he was severely brain damaged. Born on October 24, 2009, his parents’ legal battle to keep him on life support received considerable publicity, especially in Canada. In the end, his parents agreed to remove their child from life support before being forced to do so by a legal court order.

“I’m definitely not doing labour again.”

Rebecka May intends to use a different hospital for the birth of her next child, who is expected in late November, and she plans to have a C-section, rather than a natural birth. She commented on the upcoming birth: “It’s scary again. I’m definitely not doing labour again. I’m having a C-section. I guess that is an option for me.”

For legal reasons, Ms. May is not commenting on what happened at the hospital where Baby Isaiah was born, in her home town of Rocky Mountain House, Alberta. That hospital, according to admissions records, admits on average three patients a day and handles about six pregnancy-related patients a month. The hospital Rebecka plans to use next November, which is 30 minutes away in Red Deer, averages 50 patients a day and handles 302 birth and pregnancy cases a month.

Doris Wilson, a well-known nursing professor at the University of Alberta, has called for a public inquiry into the circumstances of Baby Isaiah’s birth. It’s unclear why a C-section was not performed over the course of the 40-hour labor or why the mother was not airlifted to another hospital. Evidently an investigation of the hospital has already occurred, but the details are confidential and are not being released to the public at this time.

Sources:

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Jodie Sinnema, Baby’s death requires inquiry, nursing prof says, Edmonton Journal, March 31, 2010