"Awful post-natal care - Zero stars for "dignity..."

After a 30 hour labour, during which I couldn't even keep water down without vomiting, and ending in an emergency C-section as my baby was back to back and stuck, I was left in a horrific state. Due to meds given, I lost bowel control, and was made to feel bad about that, eve though I apologised.

I was keen to breastfeed,but had to wait ages for any assistance.

I waited over an hour after my son was given to me and visibly "routing" for someone to then man-handle my breast, and push my son's nose into it, before disappearing (needless to say this didn't work).

Once left to my own devices, I was looking forward to a rest after visiting hours were over. However the family of the lady next to me didn't leave for an extra hour or so, loudly chatting away, whilst my baby was sleeping on the other side of the curtain.

None of the midwives said a word to them. When they eventually left (very late) the lady them continued to talk loudly on her mobile phone, leaving her own baby to cry.

I told a midwife as i was so exhausted at this point and hadn't slept for nearly 3 days straight, and she just shrugged her shoulders and said "what do you expect me to do".

Later, a different midwife came in to introduce herself as the duty midwife on the night shift, and asked to shout if i needed anything.

I said that i was generally ok, but that as i was establishing breastfeeding and had a C-section, i could use some help once I had got myself out of bed and settled onto the chair, for someone to pass my baby to me. She turned round and said "I'm not going to come and do that, how do you think you'll manage when you're at home?" I felt stupid and a nuisance. I got myself on the chair and held my sleeping baby in my arms all night, ready for him to wake up and feed, and just cried .No-one checked on me until the morning, and as i had failed to get my son to latch properly he had dropped a lot of body weight and his sugar levels had dropped, so a different midwife in the morning came and took him , and said "I'll feed him with a cup, to prevent upsetting the breastfeeding, you get some sleep" ... that was the first time anyone had shown me any care or compassion. The same lady realised i still hadn't eaten or drunk since the labour so encouraged me to take on a small amount of liquid - which made me feel a little better. I don't doubt this treatment largely contributed to my Post Natal depression.