"First visit to zone 4 left me struggling to sleep"

The ill-treatment I witnessed and received from zone 4 has completely traumatised me and I have been left feeling guilty for not saying anything because I couldn't bare the thought of another pregnant woman having to go through what I went through.

This is my first pregnancy and my first time in zone 4 but not in my wildest dream did I think I would experience what I went through but on the bright side, I met an amazing heavily pregnant lady, we were the longest waiting patient in Zone 4, she had been there since 11am and I was there from around 3 or 4pm, I did not leave until around 9 or 10pm and this was all because we were waiting to see a doctor.

I remembered asking the midwives to let me leave as I did not believe my symptoms was worth seeing a doctor for especially after been tested and was told that everything was fine but they insisted I waited. The only thing that kept me there was my maternity folder which they refused to give back to me. And not surprisingly, by the time the doctor finally decided to see me at around 9pm, they asked why I had decided to come in if I was only having an abdominal discomfort which I found extremely rude after waiting over 5 hours to see him, I then told them that it was my midwife who told me to come into zone 4 and they said I was fine to go.

My horrendous experience was not only for the waiting time but how inhumane I felt treated and also watched other pregnant women treated the same way especially the ones in worst conditions. This is a new experience for me and I know I'm not the only one but I feel that one of the ways I can heal from this experience is to speak out.

This system has got to change, it shouldn't be OK to treat people let alone pregnant woman this way. An hospital will not tolerate a patient's rudeness and disrespectful behaviour towards a member of staff so why is it ok for hospital staffs I.e. doctors, nurse, midwives etc to treat patients with such behaviour?