Bristol mum 'killed unborn twins and blamed midwife'
Faiso Sahil – a mother of five – was desperate to get out of Southmead Hospital, where she was bored and disliked the food, Bristol Crown Court heard.
After her unborn boy and girl died, the drug Syntometrine – sometimes administered after birth to help expel the placenta – was found in her system.
The 35-year-old told a doctor her midwife, Caroline Randall, had administered the drug – leading to Miss Randall's arrest by police.
But when Sahil, of Ullswater Road, Southmead, was interviewed by police she tried to withdraw her allegation, a jury heard.
Sahil was charged with perverting the course of justice. She denies the charge but was not present for the start of her trial yesterday.
The jury was told that after being admitted to Southmead Hospital in April 2007 Sahil, who had some midwifery training in her home country of Somalia, repeatedly claimed she was having contractions when she was not in labour.
It is claimed she then injected herself with Syntometrine, which was kept at the hospital, thinking it would bring on the twins' birth. But it resulted in them being stillborn.
Martin Steen, prosecuting, told the court that Sahil was due to give birth on May 5. He said: "She wanted to have those twins. She wanted them born alive and healthy."
But Mr Steen said Sahil was impatient, possibly due to the prospect of social services intervention following the birth and possibly because she was fed up with being pregnant.
He said: "This was a woman who wanted those two children delivered as soon as possible."
The jury heard that on March 27 Sahil suggested the twins be induced, but her request was turned down.
On April 4 she saw midwife Sue Williams, complaining of contractions every three minutes and was rude, demanding and abrupt, the jury heard.
Mr Steen said that on April 9 Sahil was seen by a doctor and asked to be induced or have a Caesarean section, which was declined.
He said the next day she was admitted to Southmead Hospital.
Mr Steen told the court Sahil was placed under the care of Miss Randall, a "senior and experienced" midwife, and placed in delivery room one, closest to the nurses.
The court heard Miss Randall kept close scrutiny on Sahil throughout her nightshift, keeping a thorough step-by-step note on her progress.
After she went off shift at 8am the next day, the midwife she handed over to was not able to detect heartbeats from either twin.
Mr Steen said: "Faiso Sahil had limited knowledge, by training from her native Somalia, in midwifery.
"Drugs are used in Somalia for assisting in delivery by encouraging contractions.
"The twins had died inside her prior to 8am. She was told at 12 o'clock that a sample of blood would identify how it was her children had died and there had been an injection of Syntometrine.
"At 1pm she spoke to a doctor and she said she had been administered Syntometrine by her midwife, Caroline Randall.
"The Crown says that was false, it was blame put on Caroline Randall by Faiso Sahil to explain away the death of her children."
In interview with police Sahil tried to withdraw her allegation.
She said she saw hospital as boring, with "not very good food", and she had not wanted to go in early.
The case continues at Bristol Crown Court.
