"Birthing experience and staff shortage impact"

I recently gave birth at the Queen Elizabeth Maternity hospital and overall was greatly cared for by very committed and amazing midwives. However, due to staffing shortages and through no fault of their own, I felt they were not able to provide the ideal care, which has overall led to a lasting negative birth experience for myself. Additionally, one member of staff, an anaesthetist, whom I genuinely feel was paramount in keeping me alive, made a poor choice of words in front of me. This has led to a great deal of trauma.

I went into ward 48 in the hospital to be induced on the Monday evening and was admitted for the gel. I was cared for greatly through the night and by morning had dilated enough to have my waters broken. However, I was told there would be a wait for available midwives on the labour ward and was told I was very high on the list.

I regularly asked for updates and was told with sympathy from the midwives that there was no space as women were repeatedly jumping ahead of me and that there wasn’t enough midwives to accommodate me. They were all deeply sorry and tried to provide the best care whilst I waited, but they simply couldn’t offer any other help as they just did not have the staff.

I became anxious that I would go into natural labour myself and be in pain and alone through the night without my partner. Unfortunately, this is exactly what happened and throughout Wednesday daytime I started contractions. I asked staff for pain relief and they said they would pass this onto a midwife. 3 hours later I eventually received some when my husband asked a midwife as the message hadn’t been passed on.

My husband left on Tuesday evening and I was extremely scared the pain would worsen in the night. It did and by 1am I was screaming in pain with no access to pain relief that made any difference, as this was only available on the labour ward and there was still no space available for me.

At 2am, as I was scared and writhing in pain alone with no sign of going to the labour ward, a midwife I think took pity on me and checked my cervix and fortunately I was dilated enough. There was finally space for me on the labour ward at 3am. This meant I waited 46 hours for an available midwife on the labour ward.

When I was in active labour, my epidural wore off and I was in agony again and an anaesthetist topped it up several times. Forceps and an episiotomy were needed to speed up delivery. Baby was perfect. My main midwife was amazing throughout and I felt supported, safe and looked after.

Unfortunately, my placenta would not come out, I began to lose a great deal of blood and so the anaesthetist returned to start topping up my epidural in preparation for theatre to remove the placenta and stitch me up. I was aware of the doctors and midwives moving quickly but I wasn’t feeling unsafe and felt they had the situation under control.

However, this changed dramatically when I heard the before mentioned anaesthetist swear and say this is really bad whilst standing over me. This changed my outlook of the situation and as I was rushed to theatre, all I lay and thought for the duration was I’m about to die and my partner and baby and family will be left without me.

This one comment made me spiral and if they had just kept that to themselves and remained professional, I don’t think I would feel the way I do about the birth. I feel quite traumatised and am fearful of how this experience will impact my mental health in the coming months. The rest of the staff appeared calm and controlled to me, which was very reassuring. I would have preferred to remain oblivious to the severity of the situation.

In theatre I said to the anaesthetist that I had heard exactly what they had said. They stared at me blankly then looked away, not acknowledging my comment.

I was taken to the HDU for the next day and a half and the care I received there was outstanding. They were so kind and answered all of my questions with reassurance. Whilst I had blood transfusions and waited for sensation to return to my legs they looked after my baby so well and I was never worried about him. I can’t thank the midwifes who cared for enough.

My final 3 days were spent in ward 47. Whilst I was still receiving blood transfusions, one midwife kindly cared for my son. It was however obvious they were very short on time and didn’t have time for all patients. If you were in the toilet and missed a visit from them it would’ve 2 hours or more before they’d have time to return again. Very long wait times for pain relief happened again.

Overall, the care I received from the midwives was outstanding. But it was obvious they were limited in their time enormously due to staff shortages. I wish I hadn’t had to wait 46 hours for my waters to be broken and that the anaesthetist hadn’t made the inappropriate comment. My birth experience would have been completely different and I wouldn’t be left worrying about my mental health and feeling tearful when I replay my experience every day.