"I feel I am only just able to give feedback on what happened"

3 years ago I gave birth to my son in the Dundee Midwifery Unit and I feel I am only just able to give feedback on what happened.

He was born in the early hours of the morning and the labour and birth went well.  After he was born I had to ASK them to weigh and check him (although to this day I'm not sure anyone knows his actual birth weight, only his weight on the day he was readmitted 2 days later).  Once I was checked over, my husband and I were left to bond with our baby.  But then we had to ASK for tea and toast and when I wanted a shower I had to ASK for a towel. 

When I returned my husband was sitting in the only chair in the room and the bed was still covered in blood etc from the birth, I had to clean it up just to have space to sit down.  I was then essentially told off as I didn't pee in the pot but no one had even asked me to do this! No one came to see us and we actually felt as if we couldn't ask for anything.  

I will never recommend the unit to anyone.

I opted to stay so that my son could be checked over by the paediatrician prior to discharge.

He wasn't feeding properly so 5 hours after he was born I did get some help and he managed two spoon fulls of milk.  I then had a breast feeding support worker later that day and once I said I couldn't feed him and was going to bottle feed that was them away and no one was interested.  He was seen by the paediatrician and I was told we could leave whenever we wanted.  He still was not feeding properly! 

I opted to stay and try to give him a bottle before we left.  He hardly took any of it and in the end we just packed up and walked out, past reception and no one said a word to us.  There was one midwife who saw me in the morning and really was lovely but had to leave to go to a home birth, and no one else seemed interested in me at all.

My son was seen by at least 7 staff members from his birth to the time we walked out.

2 days later he was readmitted into the high dependency unit in the children's ward and then transferred to NICU where he stayed for 2 weeks.

He was jaundice, required tube fed, required oxygen (for 5 months) and was confirmed to have Downs Syndrome.  

I just can't believe that none of the staff could tell, the day he went back in they knew just by looking at him.  When I was told what the indicators were I was shocked that it was missed, and to this day I am still shocked.