Home birth campaigner Caroline Lovell died hours after birth. Could her death have been prevented?

An inquest into the death of Melbourne mother Caroline Lovell after a botched home birth has heard that she pleaded with her husband to call an ambulance.

Caroline Lovell should be watching her two daughters start to grow up right now. She should be spending time with her husband in their Melbourne home.

The loving mother and former photographer should not be dead. Not at 36.

But Ms Lovell lost her life in January 2012, the same day she gave birth to her second daughter in a birthing pool at home.

Read more: A home birth campaigner has died after birth.

About an hour after greeting her baby girl on the morning of January 23, 2012, Ms Lovell became distressed.

Now, an inquest has heard how Lovell pleaded for an ambulance before her death, fearful that her condition was life-threatening.

Paramedic Marie Daley, giving evidence yesterday at the inquest into Ms Lovell’s death, claimed the desperate woman grabbed her husband Nick Lovell “by his shirt, looked him in the eye and pleaded with him for help”.

“Nick I’m telling you, you need to call an ambulance, I’m going to die,” Ms Lovell begged, according to Ms Daley’s evidence.

“Nick replied ‘No’ and started sobbing uncontrollably,” Ms Daley claimed.

Fairfax Media reports the meaning behind the word “no” was not made clear during the Victorian Coroners Court proceedings.

It wasn’t until Ms Lovell allegedly became cold and unresponsive that an ambulance was finally called — but by then, it was too late to save  her.

The mother-of-two died later that night in the Austin Hospital.

Related content: There was no hospital on standby, in case something went wrong…

Two privately employed midwives who attended the birth, Melody Bourne and Gaye Demanuele, have given evidence at the inquest.

Melody Bourne told the Coroners Court that when Ms Lovell said she needed to go to the hospital, she was light-headed and hyperventilating.

Ms Lovell allegedly said she was feeling faint and asked to get out of the birthing pool; then, as she got out of the pool, she fainted.

When Caroline was finally examined in hospital, she was found to have suffered from two tears and a blood clot.

The inquest has also previously heard that Ms Demanuele — who is no longer registered as a midwife — did not identify any troubling physical symptoms when Ms Lovell expressed distress.

Specialist obstetrician Dr John Campbell said Ms Demanuele’s response was “significantly” below standard. He added that although he had complained to the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Authority about the midwife, he was told they had no jurisdiction because she was unregistered.

Dr Campbell also told the inquest that Ms Lovell displayed “classic symptoms” of significant blood loss including anxiety, agitation and shortness of breath — and that she most likely died from postpartum hemorrhage, a condition she  had also suffered during the birth of her first child.

The court heard that Ms Demanuele was aware of other complications during the first birth, but did not believe it would impact this home birth.

Ms Demanuele told the inquest last year that she was still attending home births as a support person, Fairfax Media reports.

“Caroline was a well-informed woman,” Ms Demanuele said in court.

“She had taken the responsibility on herself to inform herself. She was happy to hear my advice and she made choices.

“She desired to birth her baby gently. She didn’t feel she was endangering herself.”

Related content: “When home births go dangerously wrong.”

Ms Lovell had indeed spoken extensively to her GPs about the risks of a homebirth in her situation – but that she insisted she wanted a “natural” birth.

Only three years before her second daughter was born, Ms Lovell had even campaigned for homebirths, making a submission to the government saying that homebirth midwives should be legally protected and receive more funding.

Mr Lovell is now the full-time carer of the couple’s two children.

The inquest continues.