A woman who recently gave birth to a stillborn baby girl in a Burnaby, B.C., hospital, says a doctor didn't listen to her concerns before the child was born.

Dawn Hicks says she told doctors she was leaking clear fluid in the weeks before she had a stillborn baby girl.
(CBC)

Dawn Hicks said she was leaking clear fluid in the final weeks of her pregnancy and phoned in to the clinic at Burnaby General Hospital on at least four occasions.

"They just kept telling me it was normal,'' Hicks said.

She said a doctor continued to insist that everything was OK when she complained about similar symptoms during a visit to the hospital on Jan. 7, just one day before her due date.

However, when she finally went into labour three days later, she found everything was far from OK.

"There was no heartbeat,'' she said. "I was rushed into emergency ultrasound and the look on the technician's face was something I will never forget.''

After asking how far along she was, the technician told her that she had no fluid in her stomach, Hicks said.

She still had to go through the birthing process, producing a stillborn baby girl with blonde hair, blue eyes and weighing six pounds, seven ounces.

Health official says he can't comment

A senior Fraser Health Authority official said he is unable to respond publicly to the complaint.

"There's very little we can say at the present time,'' said Dr. Tony Taylor, vice-president of quality and patient safety at Fraser Health Authority.

"The case is being reviewed and because of patient confidentiality, I can't give you any of the details."

B.C. New Democratic Party health critic Adrian Dix said Hicks's experience is an indication that the Fraser Health Authority doesn't have sufficient resources to deal with the health-related problems of the 1.5 million people who depend on its services.

"I don't think you can do your best when in you're in a circumstance where every day you are being measured on how quickly you address patient care,'' Dix said.

Hicks has filed a complaint with the health authority.

"If the doctor I saw on Jan. 7 had taken the time, paid more attention and followed procedure, investigated when I said I was leaking clear fluid, my daughter would be here today," she said.