A YOUNG mother held her newborn baby daughter just once before bleeding to death in her hospital bed, an inquest has heard.

Pregnant Chioma Nkwocha was just 28 years old when she was checked into Darent Valley Hospital to have her baby in April last year.

Born in Guildford, Surrey, Mrs Nkwocha lived in Nigeria but came to the UK to have her first baby and was staying with relatives in Greenhithe.

With danger signs of pre-eclampsia emerging she was admitted to hospital on April 6 2007, three weeks before her due date, and kept in for a few days to be monitored.

The inquest, held at Dartford Coroners Court this week, heard how doctors decided to induce her labour to avoid any complications, but when she failed to respond they took the decision to perform a Caesarean Section.

Dr Mohsen El-Sayed, a registrar in obstetrics and gynaecology at Darent Valley Hospital, performed the operation and told the court he thought it had all gone smoothly.

He said: “It was a straightforward C-Section. After closing the peritoneum we checked to make sure there was no problem, at that time there was no bleeding.”

However, just six hours after giving birth Mrs Nkwocha suffered a cardiac arrest and died in the hospital’s High Dependancy Unit where she had been taken for observation.

A post mortem revealed she had bled to death from a tear in the uterus, related to the incision made during the operation.

Despite the massive internal trauma Mrs Nkwocha was undergoing, four midwives gave separate evidence at the inquest confirming that she had shown no outward sign of distress until it was too late to save her.

Pethrona Young, a midwife at the hospital for 10 years, said when she checked her just half an hour before she went into cardiac arrest there was no sign of trouble.

“Her blood pressure was a little bit low, but her pulse was still normal,” she said, “There was nothing to concern me.”

However, at 8.45pm her breathing became laboured and she quickly deteriorated. Two doctors were called to her bedside and attempted to rescucitate her, but at 10.15pm they decided to stop.

Dr El-Sayed said: “The chance of catastrophic bleeding like this after having a C-Section is one in 1,000.”

Coroner Christopher Sutton-Mattocks recorded a verdict of misadventure.