"there were poor interpretation services"

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-64496514

7th February 2023

Gloucester mother died after post-birth treatment delay

[…] Modar Mohammednour, who made a home in Gloucestershire after leaving Sudan with little English, said that in March 2021, his wife attended the maternity unit at 39 weeks into her pregnancy for what she thought was a routine check-up.

Mr Mohammednour, 44, said due to language barriers his wife thought she was going "for a scan and to check on her health" and then "come back home", but in fact she was being sent to be induced.

"Immediately" after the labour, Ms Abdelkarim suffered heavy bleeding and her condition deteriorated - something Mr Mohammednour said he was "unaware of", until he was eventually called into the hospital to speak to a doctor.

The family's solicitor Hannah Carr, from Novum Law, said at this point her husband didn't know she had given birth let alone was in a critical condition.

[…] The HSIB also found Ms Abdelkarim was "uninformed" about the reason for her admission, "consent to induce labour was not given" and because she was thin and small, staff underestimated how much relative blood volume she was losing.

The HSIB said: "There was no effective communication with Rana and the events that occurred traumatised staff."

Ms Carr said Ms Abdelkarim was at greater risk during childbirth as she had undergone female genital mutilation as a girl.

She said that during the birth of her first daughter, "that was a consideration because Modar", who was present, "was able to advocate for her".

Ms Carr said because Mr Mohammednour was absent in the birth of their second daughter and there were poor interpretation services, Ms Abdelkarim and her husband "didn't understand what was happening", which "resulted in a complete breakdown in communication and led, unfortunately in part to her tragic death".