"Unsupportive post-birth care."

I had an emergency C-section with my first child and therefore was admitted to Wheal Fortune Ward for three days.

I would firstly like to qualify that certain members of staff were polite, kind and compassionate and delivered appropriate and adequate care. I do not wish to tarnish all the staff with the same brush. My complaint relates to two individual members of staff who were "looking after me" on a night shift.

Their introduction was abrupt and rude and they immediately made it clear that their approach was that I would do things their way. Their care was not patient centred and was very dominant. I was experiencing a lot of pain post surgery and was also experiencing shoulder and arm muscle spasms making it very difficult to hold and feed my baby.

The previous midwife had organised regular strong analgesia for me and told me to inform the night staff that I would require this hourly. I let the two new staff members know who completely dismissed my request, saying that they wouldn't jump straight to that and that I could just have ibuprofen. I explained that was not sufficient but my concerns were ignored. I then explained that without the pain relief, I would therefore need help to pick up and feed the baby - as even getting in and out of bed was difficult. The response from one member of staff was that they were not going to be at home with me, and told me that I would have to manage by myself.

During this introduction I felt intimidated by the two people standing at the end of the bed, who were ignoring all I was saying and making it very clear I should pipe down and get on with it on my own. I felt ganged up on and bullied. My heart sank realising how difficult the night ahead was clearly going to be and my pain began to increase due to being denied the pain relief. Subsequently my arm went into spasm causing me great distress. One staff member physically tried to manhandle me to the bathroom, saying I needed to empty my bladder as I had been previously catheterised and ignored the pain and distress I was in. I sat on the edge of the bed, trying to explain I could not move and in a lot of pain and they just huffed and told me to go back to bed and tried to get me to lie down, again ignoring my distress. They then repeatedly criticised me throughout the night when I struggled to feed my baby every three hours, yet offering no help and continuing to ignore my exhaustion and pain levels. They also told me off for failing to complete a feeding chart, when I had never been given one or told to use one by anybody. 

They asked another patient if they were ok in the next bay, and when they said they were, loudly said something like 'well at least someone is doing well and managing fine' I felt as if to highlight that I was a troublemaker.

I was continually promised that someone was coming to assess my baby's tongue tie throughout my stay but they never did, despite my repeated requests to multiple staff members. In the meantime, I had to unnecessarily struggle to breastfeed my baby and have the tongue tie cut post-discharge. I found this unsatisfactory when the baby's tongue tie was identified immediately following birth, yet three days later by the time of my discharge, no action had been taken. 

I was close to discharging myself as I felt completely unsupported, bullied and unnecessarily criticised. I felt I could better care for my baby at home which says a lot about the lack of care I received that night. I was vulnerable, in a lot of pain and felt completely alone and frightened. It was a very negative experience. 

I was shocked at the way I was treated as a patient.