{"id":502249,"date":"2025-10-15T19:29:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T19:29:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/502249\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T19:29:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T19:29:15","slug":"mum-34-and-baby-die-in-home-birth-tragedy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/502249\/","title":{"rendered":"Mum, 34, and baby die in home birth tragedy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Midwives have told an inquest into Jennifer Cahill’s death they are ‘concerned about high risk home births’<\/p>\n

17:44, 13 Oct 2025Updated 10:18, 15 Oct 2025<\/p>\n

Jennifer Cahill was the mother to her children Rudy and Agnes(Image: MEN\/UGC)<\/p>\n

A mum died just hours before her baby daughter after giving birth to her second child at home, an inquest has heard.<\/p>\n

The tragedy that has \u2018upended\u2019 the family unfolded on June 3, 2024, at the family home of Jennifer and Rob Cahill in Prestwich<\/a>, during a home birth of baby Agnes.<\/p>\n

Jen, 34, died the day after she gave birth, and never got to hold \u2018beautiful\u2019 Agnes, who lived for four days before she, too, tragically died.<\/p>\n

The cause of death for both Jen and Agnes has not yet been heard in the inquest, being held at Rochdale<\/a> Coroner\u2019s Court.<\/p>\n

Today (October 13), Mr Cahill told the hearing of the moment he had to call 999 at around 6.45am on June 3 as Agnes was born unresponsive and had not been revived by the midwife’s resuscitation attempts.<\/p>\n

Join the Manchester Evening News <\/strong>WhatsApp<\/strong> group <\/strong>HERE<\/a><\/p>\n

Mr Cahill went to the hospital with Agnes. He was only told later that his wife \u2013 described by her family as the \u2018queen of acts of kindness\u2019 \u2013 was also being rushed to hospital after suffering complications giving birth.<\/p>\n

Mr Cahill said: \u201cWe held Agnes\u2019 first and only birthday party as she neared the end. I held her and told her how much her mummy and brother loved her, and I said goodbye.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I think of Agnes, I\u2019m just happy I got to spend any time with her at all, after everything that happened that week \u2013 she was our comfort, and I\u2019ll never forget that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following their deaths, the choice to have a home birth has been described as \u2018out of guidance\u2019 and \u2018against advice\u2019 by hospital trust staff, because of concerns stemming from the birth of Jen\u2019s first child.<\/p>\n

But Mr Cahill told the court he believes the \u2018out of guidance\u2019 and \u2018against advice\u2019 phrases were never raised directly with the couple throughout the pregnancy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never heard that terminology until after the event,\u201d the risk analyst said.<\/p>\n

That red flag could have prompted a revision of their decision to have their second baby at home, according to the heartbroken father.<\/p>\n

A community midwife who saw Jen the most during her second pregnancy, Caroline Nixon, admitted in court \u201can \u2018out of guidance\u2019 referral should have been made to a senior midwife\u201d by her because of Jen\u2019s high risk.<\/p>\n

Complications during first pregnancy<\/p>\n

The couple had met as Jen, originally from Worcester, was studying in her final year at the University of Manchester<\/a> in 2011. They married in 2018 and welcomed their first child, Rudy, in 2021. The young family were enjoying their first years of parenthood, and were thrilled to be expecting a sibling for Rudy.<\/p>\n

But after giving birth to Rudy, Jen had suffered a postpartum hemorrhage, losing more than 800ml of blood as a result of an episiotomy and tear, and Rudy being a large baby.<\/p>\n

Jen had required a blood transfusion, and was also a carrier of group B strep, which can spread to babies during delivery and cause problems like meningitis. Rudy had suffered sepsis after being born.<\/p>\n

Jen Cahill had met her husband Rob as she was finishing her time at university in Manchester, studying modern foreign languages(Image: MEN\/UGC)<\/p>\n

The complications meant that, for her second child, Jen was given an appointment with a consultant at North Manchester General Hospital, run by the Manchester University NHS<\/a> Foundation Trust (MFT), to come up with a treatment and delivery plan.<\/p>\n

That plan with Dr Rice included Jen being \u2018advised she should have a hospital birth\u2019, with \u2018active management\u2019 and a drip of medication designed to prevent bleeding as she delivered her placenta, the court heard.<\/p>\n

Ms Nixon said she also discussed those risks to Jen and her unborn baby with the expectant mum during midwife appointments in December 2023. But by February 2024, Ms Nixon said she was informed by Jen that she had come up with a different birth plan, including a home birth.<\/p>\n

Mr Cahill explained that the \u201ctraumatic\u201d birth of Rudy left Jen struggling with the prospect of delivering a baby in hospital, which she found very stressful.<\/p>\n

Jen felt that she did not have enough midwife support during her first hospital delivery, said Mr Cahill, which could be eased by having two midwives present for her if she chose a home birth for her second child.<\/p>\n

Mr Cahill added that Jen felt she might be able to better control her surroundings with a home birth, and create a more familiar, calmer environment that would be easier to give birth in and cause less distress to the baby.<\/p>\n

‘Risk of death wasn\u2019t something you were ever told to talk about’<\/p>\n

Ms Nixon said she followed trust policy by referring Jen back to a doctor, Dr El-Adwan, as \u201cshe was a high risk lady requesting a home birth\u201d which would deviate from the first birthing plan \u2013 including having injections instead of a drip of medical treatment to stop any bleeding Jen might have while delivering the placenta.<\/p>\n

The midwife said she expected that Jen would again discuss the medical and management concerns of a home birth with the doctor, like the increased risk of time spent transferring to hospital in the event of a complication.<\/p>\n

After speaking to the doctor, Jen still intended to have a home birth, but the midwife said she continued to \u201creview the risks and plan with her\u201d.<\/p>\n

Jen had her doctor appointments at North Manchester General Hospital(Image: Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

The midwife said she never specifically addressed that the choice to have a home birth was against medical advice.<\/p>\n

Asked why by Coroner Joanne Kearsley, Ms Nixon replied \u201cwe were told we had to respect women’s choices\u201d in training by the hospital trust.<\/p>\n

The trust wouldn\u2019t say no to \u201cany lady who wanted a home birth, so community midwives were becoming increasingly anxious about ladies being higher risk\u201d which had been \u201craised verbally to senior leaders\u201d, heard the court.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll community midwives were concerned about high risk ladies having home births. That\u2019s not what we were trained for. We were trained to look after low risk ladies in home births,\u201d Ms Nixon said.<\/p>\n

\u201c[The risk of death] wasn\u2019t something you were ever told to talk about with ladies.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Out of guidance\u2019 was also not a phrase in heavy use at the time, claimed Ms Nixon.<\/p>\n

Phrases as direct as \u2018this is against medical advice\u2019 were to be avoided by midwives, as this was the purpose of the consultant to whom Jen had been referred, added the midwife.<\/p>\n

Asked by the coroner if she thought Jen fully understood the risks the midwife continued to highlight at their appointments, Ms Nixon replied \u201cyes\u201d.<\/p>\n

However, the midwife admitted she should have referred Jen back to a doctor once she declined to be tested for group B strep, which can come and go from the bodies of carriers, as this was another decision regarded as \u2018out of guidance\u2019.<\/p>\n

Mr Cahill said his wife\u2019s medical notes throughout her pregnancy never mentioned the phrase \u2018out of guidance\u2019 regarding her choices or her own birth plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was aware that the hospital\u2019s preference was that she had a hospital birth, my understanding was that it was related to her being a strep B carrier in case that came up,\u201d said Mr Cahill, regarding his conversations with Jen after her doctors\u2019 appointments.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe emphasis was on the strep B, not postpartum haemorrhage.”<\/p>\n

Proceeding.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Midwives have told an inquest into Jennifer Cahill’s death they are ‘concerned about high risk home births’ 17:44,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":502250,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,1285,393,4884,2465,211,10760,1170,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-502249","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-bury","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-manchester","13":"tag-nhs","14":"tag-north-manchester-general-hospital","15":"tag-rochdale","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115379842116794384","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=502249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502249\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/502250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=502249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=502249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=502249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}