Woman and baby followed by Auckland hospital contractor, prevented from leaving with baby

A new mother was followed by an Auckland City Hospital contractor as she carried her newborn son to her car and prevented him from driving, and the police had to intervene.

The mother, who gave birth 18 days ago in the hospital, claims that the woman believed that the baby was not hers. But police said they were called by “members of the public” after witnessing the woman “appeared to be having difficulty holding a newborn baby.”

The woman, who is an older mother, told the Herald on Sunday that she feared for herself and the safety of her young baby when a woman approached her Thursday afternoon as she began to put her child in her parked vehicle. in the nearby Auckland Domain.

He said the woman who the police confirmed to him was a hospital contractor followed her about 1 km on foot from the nearby wards of the city’s central hospital. She had attended an appointment to weigh her baby and thank the surgeons for assisting with the recent delivery.

After feeding her baby, she said the woman approached her as she prepared to hold her son in the back seat of the car and insisted on carrying him.

The mother said the woman repeatedly walked to her side of the car where she buckled up the newborn every time she tried to walk into the driver’s seat, preventing her from backing out of her parking lot.

“She kept asking over and over, ‘Can I hold your baby? Can I help you? Can I hold your baby?’

“I said no. There was no way I was hitting my son. Then he kept circling my car.

“I was going to get the baby out of the car seat and take him,” he said.

The mother grew more and more distressed. She was also desperate to leave because she had to pick up a family member from school.

He said the woman refused to identify herself, hiding a hospital identity tag on her body. Later, the police confirmed that the woman was a contractor for a hospital.

As the drama unfolded, the woman said she was sending messages to the doctors she had just visited asking them to call her urgently, telling them that they had arrested her for “abducting” her own son.

The mother, who did not want to be identified, said the confrontation continued for at least 30 minutes.

“She said that she should have been in a wheelchair and that the baby should have been carried in a car seat,” he said.

In addition to calling the police, additional security personnel from the hospital came to the scene.

After consulting with the hospital, the police confirmed that the woman had given birth to the child in October and was able to leave.

She also learned that the police had contacted Oranga Tamariki, who in turn contacted her midwife to see if she was fit to care for her son.

The mother claims in a later statement from the police that she was told that “this woman had a perfectly legitimate reason for calling the police because she thought something was wrong. She thought you were too old to have a baby.”

The woman, who did not want to give her age, said she “had no difficulty” carrying her baby.

“It weighs only 3.1 kg.

Now she plans to bring her son’s birth certificate in case another similar problem arises.

The woman said she filed a complaint with the police about the level of harassment she claims to have suffered from the hospital contractor.

He was also required to file a complaint with Auckland City Hospital about the incident.

A police spokesman confirmed that officers attended the incident after “members of the public” told them that they had “observed a woman who appeared to be having difficulty holding a newborn baby.”

“A hospital contractor has followed the woman off the hospital grounds and into the Auckland domain, and challenged her. There has been a verbal altercation,” the spokesman said.

“The police arrived shortly afterwards and all parties were discussed. The woman was revealed to be the mother of the baby and no further action was required.

“The police continue to encourage members of our community to report suspicious behavior. While in some situations, like this, we find that there is nothing sinister, we still want people to report anything they think suspicious to the police.”

In a statement, the Auckland District Board of Health said it understood the incident “will have been unpleasant for the mother and our clinical team is making contact to offer support.”

“We take the safety of our staff, contractors, patients, and whānau on our sites very seriously. We encourage any staff member, contractors, patients, and whānau who are concerned about the safety or behavior of anyone on our sites to alert to security immediately. Security can respond as needed. “

He added that because the staff member is employed as a contractor, he could not comment further.

“We are in communication with the contractor about the incident.”