It must have been an intense moment of family joy. But a birth turned into a tragedy on Friday in the town of Loroux, on the border between Ille-et-Vilaine and Mayenne. Aged 37, the pregnant woman had planned to give birth at home, assisted by a private midwife. The latter showed up at the couple’s home around 12:30 p.m. after the first contractions felt early in the morning.
But at the end of the afternoon, the woman felt unwell and suffered a cardiac arrest, reports The Telegram. The thirty-year-old, who was expecting her first child, was rushed by firefighters to Fougères hospital. On their arrival, a doctor “certified the death of the newborn”, specifies Philippe Astruc, public prosecutor of Rennes.
The decision was then made to transfer the mother to Pontchaillou University Hospital in Rennes. But unfortunately she died in the emergency vehicle which had not yet left the Fougères hospital. An investigation, entrusted to the Fougères gendarmerie brigade, was opened to determine the causes of death and a double autopsy was ordered by the prosecution.