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After Olivia Bates was born breech with her umbilical cord wrapped around her neck at Andaluz Waterbirth Center in Tualatin, she was transferred to Randall Children's Hospital (pictured here), according to a lawsuit filed this week against Andaluz. The girl died of oxygen deprivation to her brain when she was 2 days old. (File photo by Benjamin Brink/The Oregonian)

The parents of a baby girl who died two days after she was born with her umbilical cord wrapped around her neck filed a $7.5 million lawsuit this week against Andaluz Waterbirth Centers.

The suit claims that Olivia Bates' mother, not a midwife, was the first to realize that the girl was breech. The suit states that Stephanie Bates was kneeling in a birthing tub when she reached down and felt her daughter's legs and buttocks emerging first from the birth canal on Dec. 2, 2014.

The girl's "head remained trapped within the birth canal for 5-6 minutes underwater," the suit states. After the baby was born, the suit says, Andaluz staff couldn't find a heartbeat, then called 911 seven minutes later. The girl died two days later at Randalls Children's Hospital in North Portland because of oxygen deprivation to her brain, the suit states.

Jennifer Gallardo, Andaluz's owner and a midwife, emailed The Oregonian/OregonLive the following statement in response to the lawsuit: "Our hearts go out to the family for their loss. Respect for their privacy, along with federal privacy laws, prevent us from commenting."

The suit touches on a contentious subject: The safety and benefits of giving birth at home and in home-like birth centers -- as opposed to hospitals that are staffed with doctors who can perform cesarean sections at a moment's notice.

Andaluz offers to send midwives to clients' homes for the deliveries. It also has birth centers in Southwest Portland, Tualatin and Yamhill County, where labor take place in "beautifully decorated birth rooms with large birth tubs that will allow you to instantly feel at home," according to its website.

The website tells expectant mothers they can "avoid routine medical interventions such as IVs, episiotomies, and unnecessary cesarean sections," and that Andaluz has a 3 percent cesarean rate, well below the national average of over 30 percent.

But the Oregon Board of Direct Entry Midwifery has been critical of the supervision Andaluz staff provided in some cases where women developed complications during delivery and the women weren't transported to the hospital.

In May 2016, the board suspended the license of an Andaluz midwife for a year after a baby that got stuck in the birthing canal was ultimately born dead in 2010. The board found that the midwife reassured the woman, who had been in labor for more than 40 hours, that she had made the correct decision in not going to the hospital and that "she was in the right place," according to a board report. A naturopathic doctor had recommended sending the woman to the hospital as the safest option, in case a C-section was necessary, the board wrote.

In that 2010 case, Andaluz staff tried to resuscitate the baby for 11 minutes but didn't call 911 during that time, the report said. The birthing mother's friend called 911 six minutes into the resuscitation efforts.

Gallardo told The Oregonian/Oregonlive that she can't comment about any client's history, but did offer this response:

"Andaluz Waterbirth Center offers highly skilled midwifery care for physiological birth. Our provider team appropriately transfers women and newborns to the hospital if risk factors arise. We are transparent about our statistics on our website, and we support our clients with respectful and detailed informed consent. Childbirth in any setting carries inherent risks, and losses occur in both hospital and out of hospital settings. Obstetricians are sued more than any other medical specialization, but the allegations of those complaints are rarely reported in the newspaper."

Although the midwifery board hasn't issued any public reports about the case at issue in this week's lawsuit, the suit faults the birth center and its midwives for allegedly failing to recognize the baby was breech, allegedly allowing midwives to deliver the baby without the supervision and consultation of an obstetrician and allegedly failing to warn the baby's parents that "it was safer for Stephanie Bates to deliver Olivia Bates in the hospital."

The suit states that Andaluz staff didn't do an ultrasound on Stephanie Bates before she gave birth -- but that staff repeatedly told her that the fetus was in the proper head-down position.

More than 21/2 days after Stephanie Bates went into labor, the girl was born, the suit says. Paramedics from Metro West and Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue arrived to find Andaluz staff performing CPR on the infant, who was "pale and lifeless" and still had the placenta attached to her via the umbilical cord, according to the suit.

Paramedics rushed her to the hospital, where she suffered seizures, difficulty breathing and couldn't be saved, the suit says.

"Olivia Bates died at the age of two days while in the arms of her parents, on Dec. 4, 2014 at the Randall Children's Hospital," the suit states. The girl was their first child.

The suit seeks $5 million for the baby's pain and suffering before her death, $2 million for her loss of future earnings, $500,000 for her parents' loss of "love, society and companionship of their daughter" and $50,000 for medical costs and funeral expenses.

The suit reserves the ability to sue for an unlisted amount of punitive damages.

Portland attorney Rhett Fraser is representing the girl's estate.

Read the lawsuit here.

-- Aimee Green

503-294-5119