A woman in labour was “left alone” for hours on an understaffed ward at Kingston Hospital before her baby’s unexplained death, an inquest has heard.

Allison Pantlin said she felt like an “inconvenience” to overstretched staff after her new-born son Charlie died on August 1, 2005, having spent almost two days in intensive care at the hospital, despite what she described as a “very straightforward” pregnancy.

She had spent several hours on a maternity ward before giving birth by caesarean section and claimed “the damage was already done” due to lack of care, an inquest at West London Coroner’s Court heard today.

Mrs Pantlin left the court in tears as a statement was read.

It said: “I remember that when Charlie was born there was a breath and then there was silence.

“Our general feeling was the staff couldn’t wait for us to go and nobody could give us an explanation as to why Charlies had died.

“Leaving the hospital without Charlie was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do and the memory of it will stay with me forever.

“[There was] not enough maternity staff on the night of Charlie’s birth. My memories are of spending much of my labour alone.

“Our general impression from the moment Charlie was born was that we were an inconvenience to the staff.”

Charlie died two days after birth when his blood pressure significantly dropped, though the family was “discouraged” by doctors from requesting a post mortem, the court heard.

Mrs Pantlin, of Cobham, said that years later the family were told in a meeting with the hospital that he likely died of a heart anomaly, though Mrs Pantlin questioned this and wrote to the coroner’s office asking for an inquest.

Midwife Anna Kelly, who was in charge of the ward, accepted that it was “possible” the ward was understaffed when Mrs Pantlin was administered to the hospital on July 29.

An internal investigation by the Kingston Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in 2012 found that the head midwife should not have been administering care herself, though Ms Kelly said it was “not unusual”.

The ward was at full capacity.

Mrs Pantlin said that the family was so shocked by Charlie’s unexpected death that they did not even prepare a bedroom when she next became pregnant, with doctors saying she would likely struggle to give birth again.

Despite the warnings, she gave birth to a son in September 2006.  

She added: “It was a very stressful time. I didn’t believe that I would actually have a baby at the end of it - I didn’t allow myself to believe that I would actually take my baby home.

The family has been waiting for more than 11 years to discover the reasoning behind Charlie’s death, having requested an inquest roughly three years ago.

Coroner Sean Cummings said: “I’m sorry and the court is sorry that this has taken such an age to come to this hearing.  It shouldn’t have, it really shouldn’t have.”

The inquest continues.