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Greg Evans
Mar 24, 2018
A midwife who had appeared on the hit Channel 4 show One Born Every Minute had an affair with a man whose partner she had cared for.
Joanne Lumsden was a midwife at the Liverpool Women's Hospital where she had delivered hundreds of babies but never declared a conflict of interest.
Lumsden, who appeared on several episodes of the show and in various social media posts from Channel 4, met the man in question in Benidorm before his partner had discovered that she was pregnant.
Shortly after returning from the trip, which the Liverpool Echo describes as a "lads holiday", he reportedly began acting strangely and began to miss scans and appointments after the pregnancy was confirmed.
Then last summer, the mother who has not been named, was checked into Liverpool Women's Hospital for a planned caesarian, but she says her partner failed to turn up and subsequently missed the birth of his first child.
Her partner did later show up at the hospital but the day after the birth, she says. After he had left, Ms Lumsden is said to have revealed that she had met the new mother's partner before.
A week later, she then received a phone call from Ms Lumsden where she disclosed the details of the affair, which the mother then relayed to a community midwife.
The mother, who has four children, has since submitted a letter of complaint to the hospital, saying that she felt "violated" by what had happened and that the birth of the child was now tainted.
Speaking to the Liverpool Echo, she said:
As a mum who was looking forward to the birth of her last baby, I was subjected to the most horrific ordeal any mother to be could ever imagine.
As any woman about to give birth to their baby would understand, I put my utmost trust and confidence into the hands of a midwife who I thought was a medical professional with mine and my daughter’s best interests at heart.
This has amounted to the destruction of a family. Ms Lumsden chose to ignore a series of opportunities to declare the conflict of interest in the many months, weeks and days leading up to the birth of my daughter.
Instead, she took matters into her own hands and made sure she was present that day.
As a woman, I am now left with a life-long memory of the midwife holding my new-born baby in her arms with the knowledge that she was having sexual relations with my baby’s father during my pregnancy, and being fully aware that I was under the care of her place of work.
Ms Lumsden is understood to be no longer working at the hospital, with her and the community midwife both being the subject of a disciplinary hearing. The details of the disciplinary have not been made public at this time.
A spokesperson for Liverpool Women's Hospital Trust stated that an internal investigation had been conducted and that they wanted to apologise for what had happened.
While we cannot discuss the detail of individual cases due to patient confidentiality, we can confirm that disciplinary proceedings were undertaken by the Trust as a result of two members of staff’s conduct.
The Trust took this action immediately upon being made aware of the incident and an internal investigation was also conducted.
The disciplinary process undertaken with the members of staff involved is now being dealt with by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC).
The patient also made a formal complaint to the Trust and we have been in regular communication with them throughout the complaints process.
We would like to apologise for the upset caused to the patient as a result of their experience.​
The mother and her partner are reportedly no longer together but, despite the ordeal, she is trying to stay strong for her children and remain positive for the children.
Liverpool Echo report that Ms Lumsden was approached for comment but has not yet responded.
The Nursing and Midwifery Council were also contacted but were unable to offer a statement in regards to the ongoing investigation.
HT UniLad