A second midwife, Jordan Michaela Holland, has been charged with manslaughter over the death of a newborn baby during a Newcastle homebirth in 2024. The charges against Oyebola Coxon and Jordan Michaela Holland have raised serious concerns for many Australians.
It’s the kind of case that raises difficult questions for any family who has experienced something going wrong during labour or birth. Naturally, it can lead to concerns about their own treatment.
The criminal case you’re seeing in the news is very different from a civil compensation claim you might be entitled to make. They involve different laws, different standards of proof, and can lead to very different outcomes. Understanding that distinction could help you understand what support is available to you.
In October 2024, two privately practising midwives attended a homebirth in Newcastle, NSW. NSW Police allege that over two days, the midwives failed to respond to complications and ignored the mother’s requests to transfer to hospital. The baby was eventually delivered by emergency caesarean at John Hunter Hospital but tragically, passed one week later.
Oyebola Coxon was charged with manslaughter and reckless grievous bodily harm in August 2025. In April 2026, a second midwife, Jordan Michaela Holland, was arrested and charged with manslaughter. Nothing has been proven, and both women are entitled to the presumption of innocence.
Regardless of the outcome, the case shines a light on what can go wrong when a midwife fails to act appropriately, and what legal options exist for families who have been harmed through birthing negligence.
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Get startedCriminal manslaughter is one of the most serious charges in Australian law. For prosecutors to be successful, they need evidence of two things: first, that the negligent act caused the death; and second, that the degree of negligence fell so far short of the standard of care and involved such a high risk that death would follow as a result of the negligence, that it warrants criminal conviction.
Law Partners Senior Managing Solicitor Elizabeth Utting explains: “It’s incredibly rare for a health practitioner to be charged with a criminal offence. Gross negligence happens, but thankfully it is only occasionally in our state. A criminal charge of negligence is a completely different standard to what we use in proving medical negligence in a civil case.”
In practice, this could mean asking: did the midwife or doctor do what a competent professional should have done in those circumstances? If the answer is no, and if that failure caused injury, you may have a claim, regardless of whether police ever lay charges.
Civil claims focus on compensation, not punishment of the health practitioner.
Most cases settle before a Court hearing. A Court hearing would be before a Judge and not a jury in NSW. A successful claim can cover pain and suffering, medical expenses that you’ve already paid, the cost of ongoing treatment and rehabilitation, lost income if you’ve been unable to work, and home care and assistance. Many families we speak to aren’t sure if what happened to them counts as negligence, and that’s completely normal.
Birth injury claims can arise in both homebirth and hospital settings. In a homebirth context, a civil claim might follow a midwife’s failure to recognise warning signs during labour and failure or delays in transferring to hospital.
In a hospital setting, claims can arise where obstetricians, midwives or nursing staff don’t act in time. For example, delays in performing a caesarean or using forceps or vacuum when needed. This delay could lead to brain injury conditions like cerebral palsy.
Every case is different. The key question is always whether the care provided fell below the standard a reasonable practitioner would have met, and whether that failure caused the harm suffered.
In NSW, the general time limit for making a medical negligence claim is three years from the date you knew, or ought to have known, that you suffered harm as a result of a practitioner’s negligence.
This is called ‘discoverability’, and it matters because sometimes the connection between a birth injury and negligent care isn’t immediately obvious. That said, time limits can be complex, and waiting too long can put your claim at risk. The sooner you get advice, the better.
If your family has been through a traumatic birth experience, whether at home or in hospital, you deserve to know where you stand.
A criminal case in the news might feel remote, but your own situation is real and it matters. Civil law exists precisely to help families like yours access the compensation and support they need to move forward.
At Law Partners, our medical negligence solicitors offer free, confidential consultations. We’ll listen to what happened, explain your options clearly in plain language, and look at how we may be able to help you and your family. To learn more, call us on 13 15 15 or request a callback on our website.
