source : the age
Watching the bottom half of your son being stuffed into a plastic bag seconds after being born is not the special moment you dream of, nor is it part of most birth plans.
But this was a life-saving step, and one my wife and I knew was coming.
9News Perth reporter Connor McGoverne and his son, who was born at King Edward Memorial Hospital on New Year’s Eve, 2024.Credit: Conor McGoverne
We found out early in pregnancy our second child had gastroschisis, a rare and life-threatening defect where the bowel escapes the abdominal wall through a small hole near the belly button.
For six months, as he squirmed inside his mother’s womb, our baby’s intestines floated next to his head.
Our daughter was a chonker and in the 99th percentile for length. But our unborn son was comparatively tiny, unable to get the nutrients needed to grow at the expected rate.
Surgery was needed straight after birth to siphon the organs back inside the body – hence the plastic over the bowel, a man-made barrier to stop nature’s nasties until he was at least in the hands of surgeons.
To get surgery, our New Year’s Eve bundle of joy would be the final newborn transferred from King Edward Memorial Hospital to Perth Children’s Hospital in 2024. He’s still there and will be for many more weeks, in the care of a beautiful team of health professionals.
From 2031, newborns just like him – born with life-threatening and complex gastrointestinal and heart conditions – will be birthed at the proposed $1.8 billion women’s and babies’ facility at Fiona Stanley Hospital before being taken to PCH in Nedlands, a 20 to 45-minute drive.
The soon-to-be-defunct KEMH is six minutes away.
Some conditions demand surgery within 30 minutes of birth. The best children’s hospital in the United States, which uses a “world’s best-practice” co-location model of care, recommends avoiding transport altogether due to the risk of foetal stress and fluid loss.
This recommendation is mirrored in local fears of poorer clinical outcomes for neonates; Labor’s decision to build maternity services in Murdoch, 20 kilometres south, was made despite pleas from WA’s medical fraternity.
As one told me: “You can’t gamble the life of a newborn on how good the traffic is that day.”
The Liberals have promised to tear up newly signed building contracts, promising their own $2 billion plan to build the new hospital on the QEII medical precinct site – where PCH is.
“The cost of the Cook Labor government’s plan is the risk of death or disability of about 200 newborns every year,” Liberal leader Libby Mettam said last week.
Evocative? Yes. Realistic? No. Not every neonate being transferred will die or live with disability.
But the lottery of labour means, through no fault of their own, babies born at busy times will be caught in the clutches of the Kwinana Freeway’s clocklike congestion — and it’s those tiny troopers who do face greater dangers.
Last year, Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson left the door open to build a specialised birthing suite for high-risk babies at QEII.
This has got to be a no-brainer and now is the perfect time to commit to it. Surely mitigating risks for babies born needing surgery is more critical than a motorsport complex for Burswood Park?
Meanwhile, Premier Roger Cook claims it’s the Liberals’ plan that would cause harm and delays.
But as a parent, Labor’s plan to take maternity services so far from surgeons scares me.
From a journalist’s perspective, the government has done a poor job communicating why it’s going against expert recommendations.
My family is far from out of the woods, but we’re undeniably fortunate. Our boy is receiving levels of care and compassion I’ll never be able to repay.
Other families are in what can only be described as the worst of times; last week a boy of maybe six years old sat between two adults, who explained to him his baby sister would need to be taken off life support.
“She’s been fighting so hard. Babies don’t do anything to deserve this,” we heard them say through sobs.
Our state’s best midwives, doctors, nurses and surgeons fear scenes like this will happen if a relocation to Murdoch goes ahead — shouldn’t they be listened to?
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