"In the hospital longer than needed"

From the beginning of my stay in hospital with a planned c section going ahead, it went from bad to worse throughout my stay.

First eve before I came in for the section I had seen 3 different groups of people, from my consultant, to the pre op team to the woman whom I signed the consent form with, no one told me I was to stop the injections I was having so I could go ahead with surgery for what was classed as a high risk pregnancy throughout the 9 months. Being told it wouldn’t happen that day, to be told it would, then that would go back and forth for a few hours before I was told that yeah I can actually go ahead with surgery due to my baby’s heartbeat being now irregular.

The surgery itself went smoothly and I was back on a ward with my baby at 9:30pm after being in from 7:30am and fasting due to diabetes. But all is well I have my baby.

Fast forward to the afternoon the next day told I had to change ward, was to walk up to the overspill ward, where there is no mechanical beds after just coming out of surgery. I have been left to care for myself and my baby without as so much as a bed with a handrail to help me manoeuvre in and out of bed, the only offer was more pillows for my back and swollen legs and feet, this wouldn’t be so much of an issue if the other people I’m sharing a room with also had the same bed as I, but they both had mechanical beds.

Onto the care received, reaching a grand total of almost 10 times my baby had to get his heels pricked for jaundice due to some staff leaving the blue light on while collecting and another doctor saying that shouldn’t happen as that makes the blood clot. Why isn’t this common knowledge for them?

I've also had conflicting answers when asking for advice on my son's medical condition with never a straight answer. All in all I didn't have a pleasant stay while delivering my child and it’s supposed to be one of the happiest days of your life. The NHS is known to be understaffed but looks to me like with mistakes made and neglect on wards, they drive people like me to be in hospital longer than needed. I could have been out at least a full day and a half earlier. For me then not be needing a bed, to not need medication, and ultimately putting more strain on the nurses who are on ward.

Staff were also chatting incessantly at the desks with the lights on throughout the night, so the little sleep I could have got was interrupted by light and constant noise.