"My daughter's birth experience"

My daughter required a 37 week induction due to the baby not growing, she was admitted on a Friday and there were 3 other women in the shared room, all being inducted, and maybe more across antenatal.

On the Saturday we were told the other inductions were stopped/slowed down due to staff shortages, but my daughter continued due to pregnancy complications. She gave birth on the Sunday morning in the labour suite and was told she could shower and recover quietly.

Sadly she was then told she had to be moved to the birthing centre due to other women giving birth and shortage of labour staff and rooms. She moved to the birthing centre and was then swiftly moved to the postnatal ward, again due to staff shortage, and midwives being needed on the labour ward.

During those hasty moves there was no handover between the midwives. As the baby was small she needed 2 hourly obs, this did not happen until much later when they apologised and explained what had happened.

The baby was sleepy and not waking up to be fed, we specifically asked for the midwife in charge due to our concerns, and the medical requirement that she needed to be fed every three hours. We were given basic, and pointless feeding advice by a young nurse.

The midwife in charge never visited to check the health of a newborn, who was small for dates, who was struggling, which we had identified, but our concerns were ignored, not just once but on a few occasions, with spurious feeding advice given, but no proper review of the baby. This feeding protocol was already prescribed by the labour midwife and that she was a baby who needed higher monitoring.

When the staff team realised their error and commenced monitoring they found there was indeed an issue and the baby was taken to NICU, where you can imagine the parents anxiety finding there were complications. Sleepy, low birth weight, early birth and not feeding were indicators that were not picked up or noted by the staff. Rather they gave basic advice without checking.

Red flags were not picked up by the staff, and I believe this was due to poor communication, too much work for the staff on duty and a broken system that offered poor basic care. My daughter has a blood disorder and was a high risk pregnancy, the labour midwives' care was brilliant, they checked, were meticulous and attentive. Once handed over to a busy, pressured and understaffed team that care fell away.

The baby was subsequently released from NICU and, back on the ward, the staff were unable to cope with the additional care needs of the baby. She required to be tube fed, but at one poin, there was no nursery staff on duty and they had to find a nurse who was tube trained, and the midwives swapped patients.

The baby had to be taken back to NICU as staff were unable to administer her meds. The required 3 hrly protocols for the baby, as prescribed by the NICU were not followed correctly by the ward staff as they were understaffed. Each member of staff was lovely, but working within an understaffed team and broken system, I believe, put patients and babies at risk. Basic procedures were not followed.

The ward was not fit for purpose, with four beds in each room, with one of those abutted to a sink unit meaning people pushed against the baby when they needed access to the sink. Mums at the windows had their curtains closed all the time, meaning the other two bays were gloomy and depressing with no natural light.

My daughter was given an extension lead for the baby’s needs as there were not enough plug sockets. The TV had been removed from the wall and the wires boxed off but still visible, set inside the visible metal box. The ward was outdated with a lack of patient facilities. Additional fresh water was only available at the kitchen sink which had restricted access.

Partners are encouraged to stay 24 hrs, but there are no facilities for them with large, institutional signs on each patient cupboard saying that they can’t sleep on the bed or floor. But I heard lots of mums across the antenatal and postnatal wards say they wanted to be hugged and reassured. If partners can stay then make sure they have facilities, they are forbidden from using the ward facilities and have to be buzzed in and out of at least three doors to go to toilet.

Frankly it was a shambles, but more importantly I believe it’s dangerous, and far below the care standards I would expect. Staff are working in an untenable situation, we were told there was a high sickness level, which is totally understandable - it looked like a broken system.

My daughter had a physical issue which she reported to staff and bloods were taken, to date she has never been told the outcome of that investigation.

I want to repeat that the staff were stunning, but the system they work within is broken.