"Lack of care during birth experience"

I gave birth in March 2024. It’s taken me a year for me to feel able to write about my awful, traumatic experience in which I was treated without kindness or respect.

I arrived late at night in premature latent labour with symptoms of pre-eclampsia, and after 90 minutes of monitoring the decision was made to admit me. I was kept waiting on a plastic chair without updates for almost seven hours, and only got a bed when it was morning. I learned later that a bed wasn’t even requested for me for 3.5 hours. So at the start of labour I was already exhausted from sleep deprivation.

When established labour kicked off, it was clear that things were moving fast. Despite this I was left alone in a room on Ward 119 with my birth partners. I was given CTG devices but they weren’t fastened or checked, and some point they fell off. I was screaming with pain and begging for an epidural. My birth partners kept leaving the room to try to get the attention of staff, but were just told that there wasn’t room on the Labour Ward. I learned later that a room wasn’t even requested for an hour. I was so frightened.

Eventually a midwife brought in a gas and air device. I immediately said that there was nothing in it, and I couldn’t breathe when I used it. She told me to breathe more deeply and left the room. Within a few minutes I had lost my vision, been sick, and was about to pass out. My birth partners fetched midwives chatting in the corridor - they immediately saw that I had been given an empty canister.

Me and my foetus were deprived of oxygen at the peak of my labour. No one from the hospital apologised and I later learned that the incident was covered up by staff, even though foetal asphyxia can be life threatening and should be escalated immediately. When I told the hospital about what had happened, they refused to investigate.

Anyway, even after the empty canister incident I was still left alone on Ward 119. At some point I went into the second stage of labour and began pushing instinctively on my own. After an unknown period of time, I was finally transferred to the Labour Ward.

On the Labour Ward I received 1-2-1 midwife care, gas and air and CTG monitoring. However, the midwife put me under pressure to keep pushing as hard and fast as I could, even when I had been pushing for over an hour and it was clear the baby was stuck. No measures were taken to prevent me from tearing. The baby ended up coming out in one movement and almost falling on the floor, and I got a 3c degree tear. I required emergency surgery and a year later, I still have incontinence issues.

It became clear after I’d given birth - at 7:58pm - that the reason why I was hurried in my view was the midwife wanted to go home when her shift ended at 8pm.

Luckily my baby was healthy and unharmed by the lack of care we’d been given. 

Afterwards I complained to the hospital about what happened. I asked why basic medical care wasn’t provided and NICE guidelines weren’t followed. The hospital said that this is ‘unavoidable’ when they were busy.

I think that me and my baby are lucky to be alive.  I worry about for patients in the future due to the culture at the Maternity Unit.