"Induction/emergency section"

First of all I’d like to say every midwife and doctor throughout my pregnancy and labour/aftercare have been fantastic, through pregnancy and after. and midwife’s visits at home. All the midwife’s and doctors throughout induction and labour in ward 8 and 7, thank you so much to everyone I met for your help and reassurance. 

I had been brought in on a Saturday, mid-January at Forth Valley Royal Hospital for induction. I was booked into ward 8 but after the checks all I needed was for my waters to be broken as I had a sweep on the Thursday and was already 3cm but there was no progress.

On Saturday evening I was strapped to the monitor and had my examination I was still 3cm, they advised that it would be a while before labour ward would be able to get me round so my partner left in the early hours of the morning to try get some sleep.

The next morning I was told likely a couple of hours to be taken to labour ward, I was strapped to the monitor for baby again but no examination again, I was informed labour ward were ready for me and was taken round with my partner.

Shortly after a staff member came and spoke to us and advised they had a few labouring mothers atm and they were just waiting on a midwife who could be 1-1 with me before they could break my waters which was fine, it did sound very busy, buzzers were constantly going off in both wards. After this we had someone else come in and reiterate what the previous member had said and told us we were brought round to free up a bed for ward 8 (I had heard the midwifes there figuring out where they were going to fit in inductions due to come in so this wasn’t a great surprise).

After this other than to order food we didn’t hear from or see anyone else until I went out to see what was happening and if I could go out for a while to go home (5 minute walk from hospital) to see my other children as they were going to their dads house after school on the Monday.

The midwife apologised and said they’d look into this. They did so and came to my room within a few minutes put me on the monitor and said they’d do this and then I could go and come back in around 3 hours, assured me I was top of the list to have my waters broken and there was a few mothers close to having the baby’s so hopefully by then they would be ready to go and would have passed over with the nightshift midwife’s.

The midwife who came and checked the stats again said that they were hopeful it shouldn’t be long after our agreed time I should be seen. So we did this, came back and let them know we were back, you could see they were doing a handover at the desk. But then again we waited and waited with no contact for about 2 hours when my midwife came in (I’m so sorry I can’t remember the names, but again both were fantastic, they had to get the senior midwife as my waters wouldn’t break and then an other one because I lost a lot of blood, my birth didn’t go to plan and I needed an emergency section and everyone was amazing, quick acting, kept me informed and reassured me, again thank you to everyone involved) 

In short my interactions with staff were great but it really felt like there wasn’t enough midwife’s there to cope with the workload, there’s nothing about any of the midwife’s I spoke with to make me think they would ignore anyone but after being moved to ward 7 it felt like we were ignored for around 6 hours then another 2 hours after being told to come back for our agreed time, I heard the buzzers going off so I believe it was just very very busy but it was very frustrating, especially as we were told that our appointment could be put off a day or two depending on emergencies and if it was too busy when the appointment was booked.

It wasn’t the time we waited that was frustrating we completely understand emergencies first etc but having some contact every so often to let us know we hadn’t been forgotten and it was just emergencies or busy would have been nice, it’s the only down part to my experience. 

Thank you so much to everyone involved in getting my daughter here safely and looking after us, we really appreciate you all.