‘My daughter will never know the love of her mother,’ maternal death inquest told

Ayaz Ul Hassan outside the coroners cour in Swinford, Co Mayo.

“Never for a moment did I expect that we would go into hospital to have a baby, and that those would be the last moments with my wife.” 

Ayaz Ul Hassan held his wife Nayyab’s hand as she died in an operating theatre, just four hours after giving birth to their daughter.

The opening day of the inquest in Swinford, Co Mayo, today heard that Nayyab Tariq, 28, gave birth to a baby girl on March 22 last year, following a normal pregnancy under Mayo University Hospital.

This is understood to be the first full inquest into a maternal death following the passing of the Coroner’s Amendment Bill 2018 shortly before the pandemic. The legislation introduced mandatory inquests for maternal deaths, following a number of high-profile tragedies.

Mr Ul Hassan’s statement was read into the record before he answered questions. He described Nayyab as “the perfect wife any husband could hope for” and said the University College Cork biopharma graduate would have made “a great mother”.

Nayyab Tariq

Mr Ul Hassan said there was concern during the pregnancy that her platelet count was low, but they were “reassured that it was not life-threatening”. She went into spontaneous labour at 38 weeks. 

We were both nervous and excited,” he said.

Following a labour described by medical witnesses as “normal”, Ms Tariq gave birth to their baby girl at 6:09pm, he said.

I will never forget the grin, the shimmering glow and twinkle in her eyes when I told her baby’s nose is exactly like yours,” Mr Ul Hassan told the court.

In his statement, he recalled “a sudden gush of blood” came with the baby. This was also seen by medical witnesses. He said blood “had begun to pool on the floor”, but other witnesses said they had not seen this.

Nayyab was breastfeeding their daughter, but when the midwives called an obstetric registrar for examination, the baby was given to her father, he said.

“I was handed our baby for skin-to-skin contact, and I was provided bottled milk to feed the baby,” he said.

The placenta had not delivered, and it was decided to take her to theatre. Blood loss of 500ml was noted in the delivery room records.

When his wife was taken to the operating theatre at 7:02pm, he was told not to worry. A midwife told the inquest she was “a well lady” leaving the room.

Nayyab Tariq.

However, just hours later a senior obstetrician called Mr Ul Hassan to the theatre as his wife was deteriorating. He stayed with her for 20 minutes, holding her hand until she was pronounced dead at 10:13pm.

She died after a cardiac arrhythmia arrest following post-partum haemorrhage, retained placenta, bleeding arising from ectopic deciduosis, and shock, Dr Meabh Ni Bhuinneain told the court.

He said: “My daughter never got the chance to meet her mother, she’ll never know the love of her mother.” 

Their daughter, named after her mother, can only visit Nayyab’s grave, he said.