Use of forceps 'one possible risk factor' in death of newborn boy

A coroner has pointed to a number of risk factors, including the use of forceps, during the birth of a newborn baby who died one week later.

Baby Daniel of Harold's Cross in Dublin was born by emergency caesarean section after an attempted forceps delivery at Holles Street.

Motionless at birth, he died a week later on November 23 from lack of oxygen to the brain.

The evidence is that he suffered two very rare conditions, one of them a type of haemorrhage involving bleeding between the skull and scalp.

Counsel for the family Dr Simon Mills said it could not be ignored that this was most likely as a result of an attempted forceps delivery.

But based on the pathology evidence, coroner Dr Brian Farrrell concluded there were other risk factors besides the use of forceps that resulted in birth trauma.

Offering his sympathies to the family, he called it a very difficult case.