"Heartlands Hospital maternity"

I went in with complications at 34 weeks. The doctor and midwives were friendly in the assessment room but didn't really explain things clearly enough. My partner asked a question and was made to feel stupid. I had to have a drip put in and the nurse who did my drip dropped the cap and blood splattered everywhere. This was cleaned up but not very thoroughly!

I was taken to the Aspen ward and told I would be staying over night. I was shown into my room and it was filthy. It still had someone else's dirty, bloody swab on the cupboard and chocolates scattered under the bed!

One midwife was really horrible to me during the night. I was crying as I was worried about my complications and hadn't really been told what was wrong with me. The midwife came into my room to add fluid to my drip and barked at me asking why I was crying! I was shocked at her tone so felt I couldn't say what was wrong.

The same midwife also shouted at me when my drip stopped working. The alarm on my drip went off in the night and she came charging in and shouted that I must have moved. I said I hadn't but she said. She fixed my drip in silence and marched out again.

Throughout the night I went to the toilet a few times. I went to two different toilets near my room. One had blood on the seat so I went to the other one. This one was a little cleaner but there was tissue on the floor and had been left un-flushed.

The next day was awful! I waited 7 hours to be discharged, even though I'd been told I was fine to go home that morning. My partner and I both asked the midwives repeatedly throughout the day when I would be going home. Each time we were told that our midwife was on lunch, or our midwife was about to go on lunch, or our midwife was on her way to us.

During the day I asked for paracetamol and despite asking and asking was only given some after 3 hours of waiting!

At lunch time I was told I couldn't have chicken because the chicken was halal and reserved for Asians only. I told the woman that I didn't like the other options and she just shrugged at me. So I went without.

A week later I returned again with complications. I waited 3 hours in a waiting room before being put in the same assessment room where I had my drip put in the week before. I think it was my blood was still on the screen in the room! ! This shows how lapse the cleanliness is.

I went to the toilet to do a urine sample and again had to try 2 different toilets. The first one was slightly covered over with tissue and I could see blood in the bowl. The second one was un-flushed and had tissue all over the floor.

The only good thing about Heartlands were the student midwives. One was absolutely lovely. I remember her surname but wish I could remember her first name so I could commend her to her supervisors.

I felt let down by Heartlands as I was very frightened and it took a student midwife to put me at ease. The cleanliness really needs addressing too.