Like most dads-to-be, Anthony Hinton wanted to be fully involved with the birth of his first child. Anthony is deaf, and so he and his wife Kate asked Westmead Private Hospital to provide an Auslan interpreter for them during labour and delivery.
“I wanted to know what was going on during my daughter’s birth and what the health staff were saying,” Anthony told the The Sydney Morning Herald.
But Kate says Westmead Private refused to do it, because her husband wasn’t the patient.
“I explained how important it was for him to have an interpreter because if anything were to go wrong he would need to make decisions on my behalf and if he doesn’t know what is happening he can’t really do that,” she says.
According to the Hintons, Westmead Private suggested that Kate should use sign language between contractions to let her husband know what was going on. So the couple turned to the public Westmead Hospital.
"I turned up prepared to fight my case but they just said, 'Yes, no worries, we'll organise that for you,'" Kate remembers. "I almost burst into tears."
So the couple switched hospitals, three-quarters of the way through the pregnancy.
As it turned out, the interpreter was important. When baby Abigail was born on May 24 this year, there were complications. Abigail had to be taken to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, and the interpreter kept Anthony informed all the way.
"I am Abigail's parent also so I need to know what is happening to her just as much as my wife needs to know," Anthony says.
Westmead Private has apologised to the Hintons. But a spokesperson says they were unable to have an interpreter on call.
