"Ayrshire Maternity Unit Assessment Suite"

My waters broke at home at around 5 pm. Called the assessment suite to be told to lie on my side for 20 minutes and move around for another 20 minutes, and then advised to call back. Called back and told to attend in two hours. Attended and was made to feel stupid by the midwife who assessed me, as they would not believe me that my waters had broken because I had changed my pad before I left the house as it was saturated, so the pad that I was wearing was dry. The clinician advised me that she would need to do an internal examination, which I declined due to the risk of infection. As the clinician would not believe me, my husband drove back home to pick up the saturated pad to prove that my waters had broken.

When my husband returned with the pad, the clinician stated that they'd believe me that the pad was mine. Clinician totally ignored the fact that I was in labour and booked me in for induction the following day at 14:30. Never advised me what to do should things progress and I was sent away. When I arrived home I could hardly walk/stand with the pain, but I hung on and my husband called again at 22:00 - again to be told that I was not in full labour as the timing of my contractions was irrelevant, which I’m pretty sure is how labour is calculated. 

I spoke with a clinician over the phone who did not appear to believe the intensity of my contractions - I had done hypnobirthing and was well in control of the pain. Re-attended the unit at 23:00 to be told I was 8 cm dilated and was rushed straight to the labour suite and my baby arrived 3 hours later.

The care from this department was absolutely shocking, and I really do worry for other women who have to engage with this service. It will definitely make me think twice in the future, as I could not bear to attend this unit again.

After the birth of my child, my midwife identified that I had high blood pressure and was worried about pre-eclampsia. The midwife telephoned the assessment suite to arrange for me to go in to be assessed again, only to be told I would need to wait 3 hours as they were busy. What a way to stress someone with high blood pressure out even more.

I refused to wait and attended at the time. On arrival, there were 3 or 4 midwives sitting around the desk chatting, and it appeared as if they were not busy as previously stated. Again, another horrific experience with the unit. The nurse who did my 30-minute BP examination was the only nice person I had met throughout my whole experience . They were very calm and made me feel at ease and also explained everything very well.

Overall, I am so so so so so disappointed with your service. It appears to me to be complete incompetence, or just a complete disinterest of your staff in caring for vulnerable and in my case terrified patients.