"It felt like no one knew their head from their feet"

41 weeks pregnant.

We were told to come in early to central delivery suite for an induction to start labour at Southend Hospital.

I was checked in the morning to determine if ready for an induction and was advised waters could be broken without synthetic products. Which was great news! 

We were then told we were third in line for waters being broken which was fine, then second, then we were next. Then we’re told someone had contractions more so than myself, which meant they took priority which was also fine with us as we understood their need was greater. 

Again after a few hours and being told we were next, we waited another 4 hours and it got to over 12 hours in the room with no progression of breaking waters to induce labour.  

We were again told that we had to just wait due to no rooms, midwife or doctor being available. Despite having a room since the early morning, with all the birthing equipment in it, a midwife currently available and a doctor that also came to the room before we left along with the sister in charge. 

Being told we were next, 4 hours prior, we were then told a different story by the sister that there’s still another patient in front! It felt like no one had any idea what was going on! Very poor coordination! 

All together they advised that nothing will happen for another few hours at least and that we can either stay and have the waters broken, which by this point was, what I thought, personally unsafe after such a long wait and exhaustion, to then attempt to go through labour! 

Or we go home and do the same thing the next day with no guarantee and likely the same situation. 

The whole experience was filled with misleading information and if this is the case for many others is setting to be mums up to fail their labour! It felt like no one knew their head from their feet. Very poor experience.