Acrimony over ‘Baby Pea’ eases

There has been a “dramatic shift” in the attitude of Mater Dei staff towards the couple who claimed the hospital had “kidnapped” their baby, the father told The Times yesterday.

“I don’t know what caused it but we’re very happy about it. I’m just assuming somebody got word of my blog,” David Ellul said, referring to the Facebook page he created called “Free Baby Pea”, which until yesterday had over 600 members supporting the parents.

A chain of events unfolded after Baby Pea was born last Monday night, which saw the parents lose their authority over the treatment of the newborn.

In a twist of fate, Mr Ellul claimed yesterday that the baby had been diagnosed with hospital-acquired bacteria and he blamed the hospital for it. Hospital authorities have so far not commented on the claim.

The staff had been previously criticised by the parents for the way they handled the situation, with Mr Ellul saying his trust in the system was being eroded and he in turn is is being accused of rudeness. But they changed their attitude over the last couple of days, he said.

The Sunday Times yesterday reported that the parents, who practise healthy living, had to give up on their wish of a home birth when the mother, Marissa Bose, was not progressing after a day in labour. After some convincing by medical staff, the baby eventually had to be delivered by C-section.

The next day the child vomited blood-stained milk. More heated discussions followed between the hospital staff and the couple when the paediatrician recommended a stomach flush – the couple insisted they consult the internet before deciding. Eventually, they accepted but only as long as they could remain there together. This request was turned down and the hospital asked the duty magistrate to issue a treatment order for the baby.

Speaking to this newspaper on condition of anonymity, a doctor involved in the case said he did not think there had been any mismanagement.

“I think that overall everybody has baby’s health at heart but the two sides had different opinions of how she should be treated,” the doctor said.

“If everybody had been a bit less antagonistic things would have been much easier,” he added, pointing out that the matter really escalated from the professionals’ end when the hospital thought that the safety of the baby was at stake.

Meanwhile, the online debate about Baby Pea’s situation carried on yesterday. Although the Facebook group was full of sympathy for the parents, as were a handful of online readers at timesofmalta. com, other readers criticised the parents for questioning the doctors’ advice.

The parents are hoping that their baby will be discharged into their care very soon.

The parents decided to name her after meeting her and Pea was chosen only as an interim name since the couple has not had much time to name her, the father said.

However, he pointed out that a version of Pea will be one of the likely choices, with Penelope being a leading favourite.