"Left for hours in communal ward"

I delivered a baby at Homerton Hospital following an induction of labour. I was 39+4 weeks along. My pregnancy had been treated in Homerton under the low-risk pathway until I attended triage with concerns of reduced foetal movements. All of the clinical assessments in triage and throughout my admission were unable to identify any issues with me or baby. However, because I remained insecure, was advised in triage that inductions are offered to women with concerns about foetal movements as standard notwithstanding the results of tests. At no point was I advised about the risks and benefits of having an induction in my particular case at this particular time, nor properly appraised of the issues with hospital capacity.

After I was admitted, a midwife mentioned off-hand before my induction was started that the postnatal ward was full. There were delays but eventually my induction was started, and it was successful. The reason I am now suffering with birth trauma is because I was left for the entirety of my labour inside a small bay in the communal antenatal ward because of shortages of delivery beds.

My bay featured a bed, chair and monitor inside an area of roughly 6” x 7”. It was surrounded by retractable paper curtains and there were patients and visitors in the bays adjacent and across throughout my stay. This is an area designed for monitoring and inductions. It is not a suitable environment for active labour. However, I remained in active labour inside this bay for a period of at least 4 hours.

Throughout this period my conditions felt undignified, inadequate and unsafe. The pressures of the ward were limiting the midwives' ability to support me and there were several instances over these hours where I felt neglected and burdened with chasing updates and help, including for pain relief (which wasn't given) and a transfer into a delivery room.

While in labour, I needed to stretch, walk around and use aids, such as a pool and medicine ball, for a bearable labour. This would have also helped cope with the pelvic girdle pain I have struggled with during pregnancy. However, neither could I access or have the space to use the labouring equipment I needed to feel comfortable because my bay was very small and cramped.

I remember labouring on the floor when my waters broke and feeling disgusted and ashamed because I could see them seeping into the neighbouring bay which I believed to be occupied. This could have been avoided were I able to labour in private. Yet there was no privacy on the ward. The curtains did little to block out light and noise and I could others’ conversations. This made it difficult to relax and concentrate on my labour, and it also made me feel self-conscious and embarrassed about screaming and being heard while high on the effects of gas and air. I felt pressured to self-sensor and restrict my urges, such as to scream and undress. When I did undress, I felt exposed and afraid of non-staff seeing my body whenever the curtains opened.

From the moment I was told I would be moved into a delivery room, I was left waiting a further 2 hours inside that bay in progressively worse shape. The midwives kept checking if I needed to push and it was only when I said I had to that a bed suddenly became available. At that point I had to be rushed in a wheelchair through public areas, including corridors and the main reception of the delivery ward in a state of hysteria past other patients and visitors.

All of this could have been avoided because I did not attend the hospital in a state of emergency. My labour was induced, perhaps unnecessarily, and I spent its entirety under the care and control of midwives. After delivery, I learned that delivery rooms were being used as overspill from the postnatal ward which was full before my induction was even started. Due to capacity, I also was transferred after birth into a delivery suite inside the birth centre with another post-partum patient.

I was immediately devastated to see the private and comfortable conditions inside the delivery suite after what I'd just been through. I think it was particularly insensitive to place me there and this has exacerbated my feelings of anger and betrayal.

I feel like my dignity and comfort during labour was undervalued because of the shortage of beds. It is also apparent that the lack of delivery beds were likely due to overspill from the post-natal ward. This may have contributed to pressures to preserve the beds for the pushing stage. I say this because a bed, which was impossible to find for hours, became magically available when it was my time to push; and the same was also immediately rescinded once all the checks of baby and I were complete.

In my case, we were ready to start the discharge procedure in the morning but due to delays, the first of these did not commence before 11:00 and the last concluded at around 14:00. Therefore, the root of these problems may be the delays to discharging patients in the postnatal ward.

I feel like what I have experienced is intolerable and it should have never happened. This happened at a time when I am already very vulnerable, both physically and emotionally. I spent several months preparing for a successful labour and the conditions I was subjected to have made me feel traumatised by preventable failures in my care.

This has had a destructive impact on my post-partum recovery. I am having additional difficulties in caring for my newborn and older child and withdrawing socially because naturally people have asked how my labour went. I am therefore having to withdraw and repeatedly relive the trauma.