"Amazing labour midwives terrible post natal care"

I attended the Whittington for the birth of my second child. The midwives in the labour and labour recovery wards were amazing (albeit the recovery ward was seriously understaffed). Unfortunately the doctors in the labour ward did not listen to me at all in terms of my previous experience giving birth meaning I was likely to require another C-section with the result that I then did require an emergency c-section when baby was struggling. I was even advised to have a Syntocinon drip even though it is hospital policy that those who've had previous c-sections not be induced in that manner.

Given the doctors failure to listen to me when I reached theatre I was told that I may have to be given a general anesthetic if they could not get the spinal to work quickly enough. If I had been listened to by the doctors this would not have happened. The post-natal ward was horrific. On arrival we were told we would be discharged that same evening or the following morning. Unfortunately the midwives are extremely overstretched and we did not see them apart from when they occasionally remembered to include me on the drugs round. Our cubicle was opposite the midwives station and I overheard one telephone call where one poor midwife repeatedly said that there was too much for her to do and it was "not safe". The day after my c-section I requested some painkillers and was brought some paracetamol. When I requested codeine (which I'd had the previous day) I was was told that the doctor had taken it off my prescription. So less than 48 hours after major abdominal surgery, and without seeing me, someone had decided that I no longer needed anything stronger than codeine! I tried explaining how much pain I was in but my allocated midwife just kept coming back in and saying "your scar is fine now" which it definitely wasn't. I was then told that I wasn't allowed to be discharged until we attended a session on caring for my baby. I explained I physically was not able to walk to the end of the ward given the level of pain I was in. The lady running the course just shrugged and said it was tough - we had to attend. Predictably the course was entirely pointless. We were then suddenly told during the second evening on the post natal ward that we were being discharged. I was then handed my green discharge notes by my midwife. I noted that she had ticked the boxes to confirm I had been seen by a doctor prior to discharge and also that my bowels had opened. Neither of which was correct. I did not see a doctor at all whilst I was on the post natal ward and was provided with no information on caring for my scar or post surgery care. I cannot believe that any other post-operative patient in other wards would be treated with so little care. Also as a side note, the lady running the VBAC course needs some training - all births are "normal" and her publicly opining on whether people are likely to have a VBAC or not is incredibly unhelpful.