"What happened in the induction ward"

I went in during October for induction that was urgently arranged on the afternoon before by my consultant. I had the pessary put in that morning, I could tell the pessary had moved out of place as the string was getting longer, I told two midwifes they just said unless it falls out they won’t do anything with it. I spent two days in the induction bay nothing happening, when I finally got to the labour ward and they tried 5 times to break my waters which I was in excruciating pain that even gas and air didn’t help, turned out the induction failed.

One day in particular, I thought the midwife in induction was terrible. There was a patient who came down to see her I think about some medical complications with their baby. Anyway this midwife spent all their time with her talking about fashion, husbands, weddings, Instagram etc etc, not paying any attention to any of the patients. I asked for stomach tablets that morning and was given it after dinner which I threw up and was told oh dear with no replacement tablet until the next midwife came on. 

This next midwife was so nice, kind and caring and I explained what happened she got me a replacement tablet and told me that the first midwife hadn’t even put it on my chart that I had received one at all. Apparently they spent so much time with the one patient mentioned above, it seriously impacted other patient's birth care.

Once one of the section patients left her bed the Auxiliary came up to help change the bed and that first midwife on duty told them no need to wash it down just change the sheets because she was only in the bed for a few hours! This shocked me given the present circumstances with covid 19 never mind in general.

My second midwife was amazing, going above and beyond, she kept going to labour ward to see if there was any space for me and there was eventually. The next morning, two midwifes came and collected me to go to labour room my treatment and expert here was like night and day! ! !

Apart from the induction failing and being put on the drip that was doing nothing for me as the pessary hadn’t worked, two different doctors tried to break my waters 5 times but I was in so much pain they couldn’t manage it, we decided to head down the route of a section which really should have been done earlier. Anyway, these two midwives were absolutely amazing, their care was exceptional they obviously have a calling to that job, they made me feel so at ease and were there to help me the whole way through the experience I can’t thank them enough! ! The doctors were also amazing on the labour ward as were all the theatre staff they helped relax me after what was so quick decision and a bit of a traumatic situation for me.

Once I got on to the main ward the midwifes and staff where all generally good and few maybe less so. But some of them were amazing and so helpful with breastfeeding and expressing, whereas some of the other staff especially at night time were losing their patience with baby and myself resulting in me not wanting to breast feed and started on formula as both me and baby were getting stressed, but some of them helped me try both which I am currently still doing.

I know some of my complaints are really someone else’s but I just wanted to make you aware of what was happening in induction ward, all the other induction midwifes were brilliant.

Thank you very much