"Little sensitivity from the staff"

We visited the Harris Birthright Centre a few times over the course of our pregnancy, and have not had a pleasant experience. Our visit today for the anomaly scan was particularly unpleasant.

At the beginning of the ultrasound scan, only one doctor was present to set everything up. When my wife mentioned she had used some oil on her belly the same day, the doctor said that this was “very bad”, which is quite strong language to use with someone going through her first pregnancy, and especially since the need to avoid using body oil was never mentioned to us before. During the scan, the same doctor got frustrated that my wife did not lower her trousers enough for them to have the access they needed. The doctor got frustrated before actually explaining how things should be done, clearly having their own expectation of what a patient should know. This is again the doctor’s own frustration, and should not have been turned onto my wife, especially since the doctor did not bother explaining exactly how things should be done beforehand. Some patience and kindness would have made this experience dramatically better for us.

During the ultrasound scan, the doctors were not able to see all parts of the baby that they needed to complete the process. One of them proceeded to rather vigorously poke my wife’s belly, in an effort to get the baby to move. No one had bothered to either warn her that this would happen, or to obtain her consent to be touched in this way.

We understand that this is a university hospital and that the doctors working here are focused on research, and on training new doctors; however it’s difficult not to feel like just another research subject when visiting the Harris Birthright Centre. There is little sensitivity from the staff towards the woman’s experience going through this emotional time, not to mention the vulnerable positions that mothers-to-be find themselves during the examination, with part of their bodies exposed to people they do not know.

We chose King’s as our maternity based on good feedback we’ve heard around us, but so far our experiences have been less than ideal.