"Arriving to Give birth at Princess Anne Hospital"

Today I brought a young friend of mine to Princess Anne for a midwife appointment. She was actually already in labour when we got there and had had phone calls to the labour line two or three times in the day as she was concerned about her condition. She attended the planned appointment and it was confirmed that she was in labour but had started to bleed so could not go home. At this point my friend was told she could not be admitted as all the operating theatres were out of action and no body was being taken in. There was then a lot of discussion between the midwives as to whether she should stay or be taken to Portsmouth or Basingstoke. For a first time mother this was very stressful. First she was going to be taken by ambulance to Portsmouth and we waited for one to come. Then there was concern about her bleeding and the consultant was called. Finally it was decided that they would keep her. We both could not believe that a superb hospital like Princess Anne did not have a back up plan for the operating theatres being out of action. There was no procedure in place, we were told to wait an hour and hope the problem would be fixed. Although the midwives were very kind, there was a lot of disagreement in front of my young friend about what each thought should happen. All this in the corridor of the hospital with people going past. Thankfully she was kept in the end and had her baby safely but I think somebody needs to look more strategically at how you cope in such conditions and adopt some kind of protocol. I was really surprised and upset by the position my young friend was put in and it certainly would have upset her much more if I had not been there with her and she was on her own.