A mum says she has lost all her trust in the health system after medics failed to warn about her sons missing fingers.
Dominique OBrien, who gave birth to son Elliott in February, said shes looking into sterilisation after her whole world fell apart when nurses said her baby had a finger deformity.
Dominique has hit out at the NHS, after discovering that its not routine to check for fingers and toes in scans.
After her eldest son Ethan was born extremely small, the 25-year-old decided she would have growth scans to monitor the babys progress more carefully.
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But in every scan she had, her childs condition – which affects 1 in 32,000 children – remained undetected, with a nurse even telling her during one scan look at your baby waving at you.
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The mum, from Netherton in West Midlands, said shes will not have any more children after losing faith in the medical community.
Dominique, who gave birth at Liverpool Womens Hospital, said: The whole experience has made me look into getting sterilised. Ive lost all my trust and I wont have any more children now.
She told of her experience: I remember going for my 32 week scan with Elliott and the lady doing the scan saying “look at your baby waving at you”.
I had a scan four days before my C-section and nothing was picked up on that. As I went in to give birth the nurse asked me if I wanted her to take pictures of the baby coming out on my phone and I said “yes”.
I gave birth and the nurse was reluctant to hand my phone back. Thats when I knew something was wrong.
Nurses told Dominique her baby had two health issues – a tongue tie and part of his hand and fingers were missing.
Dominique said: My world fell apart. If Id of known about the condition from the start I would have been able to come to terms with it.
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But I spent months feeling guilty, just thinking Id done something wrong. I couldnt enjoy my baby. I just spent all my time worrying about how he would get through life and how hed be bullied.
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If Id have known about his condition – called symbrachydactyly – it wouldnt have changed anything. I just needed time to prepare.
Elliott has a hand, but very short digits, with his pinky finger almost non-existent.
She added: Its been really hard and I felt so much guilty. Thats why I launched my petition to get the procedure changed and make it compulsory to check for it in scans, to stop other families going through what I have.
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