"Maternity services"

My compliments to the midwives who attended the birth of my son on at my home. Their professionalism, kindness, and total respect for my birthing preferences will forever be valued by myself and my family. Their care and the care of the community midwives generally is wonderful. There have been several who have stood out as a credit to their team and profession. 

I would however, like to raise some wider concerns. 

During my last pregnancy, I had severe Hyperemesis Gravidium and after a brief meeting with a senior member of staff during the induction of labour with my daughter last year, was assured the appalling care I had received would be looked into and practice would be changed in terms of accessing GATU and knowledge around HG. 

It seems that it has not. I’m aware that some women are being told incorrect information pertaining to access of GATU for what is lifesaving and straightforward treatment of dehydration in HG. It is unclear why midwives aren’t aware they can refer pregnant straight into GATU- what is clear is that women are suffering unnecessarily as a result of this lack of knowledge. I’d be very keen to discuss my experiences, and experiences of women I’ve supported to access treatment for HG over the last year further.

Alongside this, I have a direct concern about misinformation given to me during my attendance at triage. I attended for reduced movements at 40+5 weeks pregnant, and during my stay there it became clear myself and baby were fine. I explained I was booked for a home birth, I was low risk and baby had been fine since the episode and I was increasingly sure that the change had been impending labour, as I was now feeling contractions (which were evident on the CTG). 

I was informed that as I was post-term (which is incorrect, post-term is 41+6) and had had an episode of reduced movement, I was now high risk. I would need to speak to a doctor about induction. I agreed to this but expressed that I was sure this wasn’t policy and it was two episodes that would mean I'd birth at home against medical advice. 

I spoke to the doctor, who informed me I should be booked for induction, a scan, I was at risk of stillbirth, I would need to see a consultant and would need constant monitoring should I labour in the next 24 hours. I again expressed that I did not believe this to be accurate. Firstly the lack of knowledge for what term is shocked me, as at 40+5 I was not “overdue”. The threat of still-birth was unnecessary, stressful and again, factually incorrect and in my opinion was an attempt to dissuade me from what was a planned low-risk birth at home. The information given to me was incorrect, and this was confirmed to me by the midwives who attended my straightforward home-birth two hours later. I repeatedly expressed that I was sure I was in labour and wanted to get home, and was ignored. 

The lack of choice for birthing people in this county in terms of where they birth is shocking. Especially when you consider what an absolute credit the community midwives are. There is no reason I should have been dissuaded from my planned labour. This has been a theme throughout my pregnancy and indeed, my last pregnancy - a total lack of respect for my own care preferences and autonomy. There are many more accounts I can give of care I’ve received that has been lacking in evidence, in respect for me as the decision maker in my care, in regard for my daughter's welfare after her birth last year at the CLU in PRH (where an irregular heartbeat was missed and resulted in us being readmitted, alongside several other issues during a very intervention based birth for what was a healthy baby), and for my health during pregnancy where I’ve had to fight to have treatment needed.