A CWMBRAN mother believes more could have been done to save her baby daughter who died just seven hours after a traumatic labour.

Claire White, 27, and her partner James Eden, 36, from St Dials, were hoping to welcome their baby girl into the world on April 28.

But instead they were planning her funeral after she died following complications.

Ms White believes that more could have been done to prevent her death and the pain continues as they are still waiting for answers from the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board more than three months later.

A spokesman for the health board confirmed a full review is to be carried out.

Ms White explained that everything was going as planned and her 12 week scan was normal.

But as the pregnancy developed, Ms White suffered with swelling.

She said: “I had no feelings in the tips of my fingers and had pain in between my ribs but the midwife said it was normal.

“But a month before my due date my water’s broke so we went to the Royal Gwent.”

She said that she was left in pain for three days and was getting “bigger and bigger” each day as she filled with fluid.

“I had no neck it was awful,” she said.

About 2am on March 28, she suffered severe labour pains and was transferred to a different ward, where the baby’s heart rate was monitored and shown to be low.

She said: “Hours went by before a nurse came to examine me and said they could not pick up a heart beat but reassured me that it would be fine and maybe the baby’s heart was beating the same as mine.

“Hours later a surgeon came in and gave me an epidural and took me down to theatre and they used forceps to try and pull her out.”

She described how they pulled but the baby wouldn’t come out.

She said: “The thought went through my mind that I was going to die but I knew that I had to stay focused to get the baby out.”

She described that the baby was born “swollen and bruised” at around 8am and her lungs were full of fluid.

Their baby survived for around seven hours before the machine was switched off because doctors could not find brain activity.

Ms White said: “It was awful and I wouldn’t want anyone to go through what we went through.”

The couple believe that things could have been different if the baby had been delivered sooner.

She said: “We were all excited for the baby as she was James’ first baby and my daughter was excited to have a baby sister.

“But instead of registering her birth we were planning her funeral. Now we just want answers.”

A spokesman for Aneurin Bevan University Health Board said: “We are carrying out a full review of this case in order that we have all the information to discuss with the family and sincerely apologise for the time this has taken, we appreciate that waiting for the investigation to be completed is very distressing for all.

“We will of course meet immediately with the family to share our findings as soon as this work is completed.”