Baby ES Summary

Baby ES was born on the 1st of August 2022. On the 1st of December 2022 an ambulance crew were called out to a report that Baby ES wasn’t breathing and was unresponsive. Baby ES’s mother said that she took Baby ES into her bed the night before and that he didn’t wake in the night for a feed as he normally would. The baby was unresponsive in the morning. The baby was making noises but wasn’t breathing as it was likely that he was in a cardiac arrest. Full resuscitation was carried out by the ambulance crew, but rigor mortis and hypostasis were evident. Baby ES died at 18 weeks of age. Baby ES’s mother was arrested for causing/allowing the death of a child and has been released on bail. Baby ES’s father didn’t live in the property but stayed over occasionally. Mother’s first child was born in March 2020 to a different father. Domestic abuse incidents occurred between the mother and father of her first child in 2021 and 2022. Baby ES’s mother and father both have Police records showing physical and/or verbal abuse towards other people known to them and the father was a suspect in a stabbing incident. Baby ES’s mother had made threats on Facebook and verbally attacked others. Baby ES’s father was convicted for having an ‘Article with a Blade or Point in a Public Place’ in February 2018. 

There were five referrals submitted to CYP over a period of 20 months, none had reached a threshold for statutory intervention.

Neither of the fathers were seen or considered and their details weren’t added onto the children’s health records until after Baby ES’s death. The full family dynamic needed to be considered, especially when there were reports of domestic abuse and difficult living conditions. There is a need for professionals to take a whole family approach and ensure that fathers and male partners are included on children’s health records.