"I was made to feel like an annoyance"

I had to be induced due to developing Obstetric Cholestasis

On the birthing unit I was welcomed to a tiny, cramped, very uncomfortable room.

I wanted to have a bath available to me or birthing pool to help with the pain without having to use medical pain relief, that was shot down before I had a chance to sit, I was told that wouldn’t be possible because I’d be hooked up to an IV for the oxytocin.

When it came to inserting the cannula I mentioned to the midwife that I had to have it put in a very specific place in my wrist because I have a funny kink in my vein and that’s the only place it would go in, I knew this because I had a cannula put in a few weeks previous for an iron transfusion and the lady there explained it to me.

The midwife ignored me and stuck me in the hand 3 times before calling a different midwife to have go, they stuck me a further 3 times before just putting it where I told them to at the beginning, I hate needles and this caused me a lot of stress before we’d even begun that could have been avoided had they just listened to me.

The Dr that broke my waters was a very lovely man and explained what was going to happen, he suggested that I get some food, and when I come back up they’d hook me up to the IV for the Oxytocin to get things rolling. We would never get to that because I pretty much immediately started getting very strong/intense contractions when he left. My mum ended up going down for me to get me food because I still hadn’t eaten anything yet.

My husband helped me down off the bed so I could sit on the birthing ball to try and get comfortable, the midwife asked me if I wanted an epidural, I said no because one of the things I was strict on was that I did not want an epidural, they then offered me gas and air and I said yes.

I don’t know if it’s because I was already exhausted from my stay or if it was because I hadn’t eaten anything yet, but the gas hit me very hard, I ended up with the mask stuck on my face because I was leaning into it and couldn’t move it away. My husband didn’t know you weren’t supposed to be taking in that much gas and the midwife didn’t seem to notice.

My mum noticed the second she walked back into the room with my food  and she took it off my face which led to me falling forward onto the bed and nearly onto the floor had she and my husband not caught me.

From this point on, I was too gas high to really understand what anyone was saying to me, I remember the midwife kept asking me if I wanted an epidural but I’d already told them 3 times I didn’t want one, another few hits of gas and the midwife asked me again but now I'm confused from the gas and didn’t understand what they were asking, I said yes and luckily my husband caught it, he said no and asked me himself if that’s what I wanted, he had to repeat himself a couple of times and talk slowly for me to understand what he was saying and I was shocked he was asking because I’d told him a million times I don’t want one throughout my pregnancy.

After a few hours I told them I felt like I needed to push, I was told that's not possible because it’s too soon, my mum told them to check and it turned out that I’d gone from 4cm to 7cm in 30 minutes, after this point I don’t remember much.

I was moved to the Mary ward, hooked up to an IV because I was dehydrated and left to breastfeed my little one alone, no one came to explain anything to me so I just had to figure it out.

My husband had to leave again so now I was truly on my own, no one came to check on me, no one came to offer me any food and no one offered to help me wash, in fact I was left covered in blood and sweat from giving birth until I went home the next day.

During the night while I was still hooked up the IV I was breast feeding my baby and when she was done I realised I couldn’t reach her cot with the drip in my arm. I rang the bell but nobody came, I rang again and waited and still nobody came. In the end the dad in the bed next to mine helped me put her back in her cot, I'm lucky he was awake and happy to help me because the midwives were nowhere to be seen.

The next morning my husband came to see us, my Cannula had started to itch and irritate my skin since it had been in for a long time at this point, he went to the midwife station and asked if I could have it removed and was told to take it out himself because they were understaffed, he later had to leave again and mum showed up at around 3pm that day,

She was told that I had been discharged and wasn’t at the hospital anymore.

She walked down the hall stopping at the different bays calling my name until I could hear and confused as to why she wasn’t just led to my bedside, called out to her, she came to me and explained that I had been removed from the register as discharged, meaning had there been a fire they wouldn't have looked for us.

I was made to feel like an annoyance, I was ignored, left dirty, and ultimately forgotten entirely.