"Induction/Labour in Doncaster Women's Hospital"

September 2020 I was induced at the ward, they explained everything to me but no mention of how long induction would take. I was induced and on Saturday I was 4cm. Until the Tuesday I was just left to sit and wait without any information.

I began to grow increasingly concerned as I was not offered another scan to see if my daughter was still on the downward dip. By Monday night my partner had come and I was in floods of tears asking to go home, I didn’t want to be in the hospital anymore. 

Tuesday afternoon I was taken upstairs to the ward to have my waters burst, I was told by the midwife I was only 2cm and she might not be able to pop my waters. I would have to go back to M2 and start the process again. The midwife managed to pop my waters with difficulty. Once this procedure had been completed my partner joined me. I was left until 6 pm but my labour had not progressed enough, so I was then placed on the drip.

This is when my labour became a horrible event for me, I had said I wanted to labour with only gas and air throughout which was respected for a brief period. I was deeply unhappy with the amount of midwives I had within the 14 hours of labour. 6 midwives came an went through my labour, I didn’t really recall 3 of them and 2 of these were the midwives who delivered my daughter. After 5 hours of labour I was only at 5cm and told that I would struggle to push my daughter as I was tired, I felt fine and did explain this to the staff. The doctor was brought in and I was told to consider a C-section, I said no to this unless in a emergency.

I believe that I was being unheard for what I would like from the birth, I did not move from my bed for 14 hours apart from once to go to the toilet. I suffer with painful hips and lower back pain from being in once place for so long. By 2am I was told the baby was in distress and that I needed to take another form of painkiller as the midwife told me I could not cope on just gas and air, even though I had said repeatedly I didn’t want any other pain relief unless I began to ask for it.

I felt extremely forced into my choice and as I was in pain I didn’t want to argue. They gave me diamorphine as that and pethidine were the only choices I was given in this time. They checked my daughter for signs of distress with a scratch to the head and ran her bloods which showed that she was not in distress. Throughout this time I was repeatedly having a C-section shoved in my face, I had explained I did not want one, but again this went unheard. After having the bloods tested from my daughter I begged the staff to let me lie on my side to relieve the pressure on my back and to get as comfy as possible. Within half an hour-1 hour of this I went from 6cm to 10cm as I was less stressed and felt slightly in control which I had not felt throughout the whole process. I began to push and after birthing my daughter within half an hour, they placed her on my chest for all of 10 minutes even though I had asked for skin to skin. I believe this is because she was born with meconium in her waters, after having the all clear she was never handed back to me until I was on M1.

The most heart-breaking part as, this is all I have waited the 9 months for, that first hold and it was cruelly snatched away from me. I also wanted to breastfeed which I expressed to staff. This was never offered to me and I didn’t get to feed my daughter until I was on M1 after 9 o’clock in the morning. I genuinely believe it affected me for some time and the bond I then had with my daughter, whilst also affecting breastfeeding my daughter too. The 7th midwife to tell me to shower to go to the ward and to take me to the ward. I was in stirrups from the beginning of pushing and left for over an hour in these as I needed stitches and it was easier to keep my legs there rather than repeatedly moving them I heard the midwife say to my partner. Which I believe contributed to my now painful hips which were not an problem before labour.

Whilst on the M1 my care was thankfully much better and I am so grateful to the team.

At 5 days postpartum I was waiting to receive a call to go to the hospital to have my stitches checked. Unbelievably I was forgotten about the actual words from the midwives mouth and at 2.30pm I was asked to get to hospital by 3pm. When we arrived I asked the midwife to really check my stitches, as they felt abnormal and extremely painful whilst also restricting my movement. She told me my stitches were fine and nothing to be concerned about but I pushed for a swab. 10 postpartum they were shocked to find that a stitch which was not required was still in place nearly across the entire bottom of my opening which is why I was in so much pain and had severe restricted movement.

5 weeks later I received a call from my GP practice to ask why I hadn’t been to pick up my antibiotics. They then informed me that the test for my stitches had come back for a infection, none of the midwives had ever passed this on.