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"I felt like I was on my own"

About: Forth Valley Royal Hospital / Maternity unit

(as the patient),

I had a traumatic birth experience. I was induced and from start to finish there was constant problems that happened with myself.

There was a lot of the midwifes that was fantastic in the unit, they helped a lot during my labour.  However I had one midwife that was very rude.

I was induced and was getting examined to see if my baby was OK before they proceeded, however he was in distress and the midwife was not happy as they were back and forth and it was as if it they were short of staff! They put the gel in to induce me and their words were - sick of fannying about. I was in a lot of pain after it as I was in hours of distress and my baby was too! 

I then went on to labour ward and was in labour for 12 hours to then get an emergency c section because my baby was around the wrong way and I only dilated to 5 cm! Because I was working so hard for the 12 hours my uterus never contracted back and I lost 4 and a half pints of blood and had to get a blood transfusion. 

Fast forward 4 weeks and I was in significant pain and a blood clot passed away at home to then find out I had leftover products and then had to go in for surgery to remove it. 

Then 2 weeks later I kept complaining how I was bleeding a lot and I was told it was just a period. I had to force someone to see me as I knew something wasn't right and I was fobbed off twice. Turned out I had Streptococcus in my cervix and I was completely disregarded. 

I feel my whole experience could have been better and it has mentally affected me and I'm always anxious something is going to go wrong after it 😔 

Apparently it's common to happen after the blood loss to have left over placenta, but why was there not a routine check to find out if there was anything wrong?

I felt like I was on my own and no help that I needed and was suffering in pain when it could have been a better experience. 

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Responses

Response from Alana Harrower, Department Manager/Senior Midwife/Best Start Project Lead, Women, Children & Sexual Health, NHS Forth Valley yesterday
Alana Harrower
Department Manager/Senior Midwife/Best Start Project Lead, Women, Children & Sexual Health,
NHS Forth Valley
Submitted on 13/11/2025 at 15:36
Published on Care Opinion at 16:29


Dear scorpius37

Thank you for taking the time to share your experience with us. I am truly sorry to hear about the challenges and distress you faced during and after your birth. What you have described sounds incredibly difficult, and I deeply regret that your care did not meet the standards you deserved.

I are deeply concerned by the comments you described during your induction and labour and by the fact that you felt unsupported during your care and recovery. This does not reflect the standard of care and respect we aim to provide. Your feedback on the care opinion platform is anonymous and if you feel comfortable, I would like to offer you the opportunity to speak with me to discuss your experience further and allow me to review your care so I can understand what happened and take steps to prevent this from occurring again.

Your feedback will be shared with the relevant teams to ensure learning and improvement.

You can contact me directly on the details below.

Thank you again for bringing this to our attention. Your voice is important in helping us improve the care we provide to all families.

Alana Harrower

Department Manager /Senior Midwife

Email: alana.harrower@gmail.com

Tel: 01324 567167

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