Enfield newborn died due to care failings, inquest rules

An inquest into the death of a seven-day-old baby has found that an NHS trust failed a mother by not recognising and appropriately managing complications following a high-risk home delivery. Poppy Hope Lomas died on 26 October 2022, a week after her birth at her home in Enfield, north London. Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust had agreed to support what the coroner described as "an unsafe home delivery that was against medical advice". Poppy's mother, Gemma Lomas, told BBC London she felt that the home birth team did not act fast enough. "She was so purple, and her head flopped back," she said. "I remember saying, 'There's something wrong.' They said, 'No, she's fine, the baby's fine.'" She told Barnet Coroner's Court that she had not been informed that her pregnancy and planned birth were high risk and "would never have made a decision to harm my baby or myself". Lomas explained that she had been given a checklist by midwives ahead of Poppy's birth outlining potential warning signs, including scar pain, prolonged pushing and abnormalities in the baby's health. Looking back, she believes several of those red flags were ignored. The mother of two said she had experienced scar pa