"I am scarred for life from my experience"

I was 41 weeks and offered the induction of balloon on the Thursday morning. I was then sent home and the balloon fell out that evening, I was told to phone ward a induction team once it fell out. They told me they had no beds and couldn't give me an exact date or time to bring me in to get started. I had a straightforward pregnancy and no complications.

Throughout my pregnancy my green notes always stated that you could only go over 7-10 days (I believe this was reduced during COVID as I had a baby in 2021 and i remember it being reduced from 14 days originally). The royal ward a induction team were allowing me to go over 13 days before being brought in because my waters hadn't broke' I had no contractions and basically didn't cause a fuss.

I had to ask to be checked every few days to make sure the baby was ok when I was brought in to the ward I was given a chair and monitored on the ECG. I rang everyday crying with stress and anxiety asking when would I be brought in. 

One of the midwifes told me there was people waiting in front of me waiting to be induced. This just didn't make sense to me as I was well overdue after the Thursday. Although she wasn't allowed to talk about other patients it just didn't help the situation being told other people are waiting before me.

I kept being told on the Sunday day (4 days after getting the balloon in, 41+3 days) that I was next on the list to be brought in and I could be rung at any time of the day or night. I then started getting pains on the Sunday night and went to admissions to be checked.

I was only 2cm but the midwife spoke with the sister in the delivery suite to bring me up. When I did go up the sister asked if I was actually getting any pains and asked what I was eating, I was eating sweets as I knew i wasn't allowed to eat when being induced. She thought I was eating chewing gum so this just started to cause me even more stress that I already endured during the last week of being overdue.

I finally had my baby boy and the midwifes/doctors I had were amazing during labour and giving birth. I had him within less than 10 hours so it was quite a quick delivery.

Then I went to ward e post natal ward which was even more stress, I couldn't wait to get home. I basically was on antibiotics incase of infection as my placenta didn't deliver post birth. I was throwing up and had no help after being refused as I was told they had bloods to do.

I understand the staff are under pressure and under resourced but I am scarred for life from my experience I just hope it improves as no woman should be refused giving birth because they have 'no contractions or no waters broke' and rushed out of hospital post natal no matter what, there is a duty of care to be given.

The midwife on ward e were amazing but they just didn't have the resources available to help me when I needed it.

This happened November 2023 so I'm just ready to talk about it now and hope there can be an improvement in the future.