‘Perfectly healthy’ newborn baby girl died days after making ‘grunting’ noises

A MUM has shared the heartbreaking moments she watched her newborn baby slowly die from an infection that could have been prevented with a £15 test.
Natalie Lockyer’s daughter Quin developed Group B Strep infection (GBS) in the fifth week of her life, a bug the mum had unknowingly passed onto her during labour.
"A simple swab could have saved my daughter's life, and we weren't even offered it," Natalie, from Suffolk, tells the Sun.
"We now have to live in a world without Quin, and it's awful."
Group B Strep is a type of streptococcal bacteria that is very "normal" and lives in one-fifth of all women’s vaginas and guts, Professor Philip Steer, an obstetrician from Imperial College London, said.
"It's usually harmless but can cause infection in newborn babies when the bacteria are passed to the baby, and this most often happens during labour or after birth," he added.
Most babies with a GBS infection make a full recovery, but some develop serious conditions such as sepsis or meningitis. It can also lead to death.
Natalie, 32 and her husband, James, 38 - who both work for the civil service are now calling for Strep B testing to be available to all mums-to-be.
Campaigners say the test could cost the NHS as little as £11. Medics say the price is likely slightly higher at around £15 to £20 per test.
"Even if the NHS doesn't want to pay for us, give parents the chance to pay for it themselves - let us know the risks," the mum says.
"I can't think of any parents who would turn such a potentially life-saving test down."
Natalie has also backed a campaign to put the infection on the notifiable disease list, which would mean case numbers are tracked.
Their baby Quin was born " perfectly healthy" on December 6, 2022.
"She was a very easy and happy baby," Natalie says, "much unlike her naughty older brother Cooper (now three)".
Just five weeks after Quin was taken home, the mum noticed changes in her newborn.
"She suddenly started getting vocal, cried a lot and struggled to eat properly," she explains.
The baby then started snoring at night and "grunted" often during the day when she tried to feed.
"Initially, I thought she probably had a cold; it was winter, after all," Natalie says. "But then she stopped eating altogether."
Read more: www.thesun.co.uk/health/26416...
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