"Bad experiences"

As individual staff, I couldn't fault them as they were all very caring, friendly and put me at ease. My biggest concern is the clear lack of resource and pressure that they are under to send you home and free up beds.

My first child, born in March 2019, arrived after a 36 hour labour with him in posterior position. We were initially sent home, as staff were unaware of posterior position that caused significant discomfort. As labour slowed it was agreed I would be induced to speed things up, within half an hour they then asked how I felt about going home! I refused to leave the hospital grounds due to the repeat long journey we had already made and intense pain and eventually made it into delivery ward. Sadly, I was let down by staff responsible for breastfeeding support and they attended so infrequently despite knowing I had difficulty feeding my son. Two days after being born I had given up on getting help and signed myself out of the ward, and gave up on breastfeeding within a week. They failed to notice the severe tongue tie which was causing problems with feeding, thankfully the midwife visiting my home noticed straight away. This had a huge impact on what should have been a happy time and I was miserable.

Second pregnancy in November 2023- I was high risk (again) and booked for induction on due date. This was slow to work which meant a couple of days on the noisy ward with very little sleep due to constant noise and movement in the ward. Finally got taken to delivery room after 2 days, had another long labour due to waters not being broken properly and baby also being posterior, but these things were not noticed until I was at least 6-12 hours in. I was utterly exhausted, but looked after well in surgery for retained placenta for which I had an epidural. Catheter was removed the next morning after the maximum time, by which I was very uncomfortable. Worst still, my husband was sent home shortly after my surgery leaving me unable to stand, while caring for baby who vomited throughout the night. A staff member kindly moved changing bag nearer and gave clean bedding for cot, but it felt dangerous to be changing baby on knee several times while reaching for things which were on the unit at my shoulder. During the night and the next morning, I let staff know my daughter had vomited throughout the night and wasn't feeding well, and they recommended waiting until midday for next feed and seeing how I felt about how well she was feeding. They were aware I had group b strep and baby was at risk and should never have let me make that decision. I had been on the ward for 3 nights and was desperate to get home and see my older child too. Vomiting and not feeding are known symptoms, along with discoloured face which she had when we look back at photos.

Two days later my daughter was readmitted to neonatal with early stage sepsis which they believe was caused by passing on group b strep. Neonatal were absolutely amazing, but we have been distraught at the poor level of care from labour ward, and potential outcome this could have caused if I hadn't took steps to have her readmitted in time. 

We don't have plans for a 3rd child, which is just as well as these experiences would have definitely put me off. I will happily never set foot on a labour ward again after the inconsistent and inadequate care for me and my children, and I'm not surprised that Mum's suffer post natal depression especially with this quality of care.