"Childbirth in Wigan: a mother's story"

Both my daughters have given birth recently and I feel the way both of them have been treated is terrible.

My youngest daugher ended up on the verge of having pre-eclampsia, (this is something a lot of expectant mothers are getting). This was luckly picked up at antenatal by the health visiter. She gave birth at 38 week by ceasarean because the doctors felt the baby was better out of the womb. Thats when they discovered the baby had not grown for 5 weeks, weighing 3lbs 10ozs. What really upsets me is the fact that she had been attending regular antenatal clinics, and all her measurements were written down, but yet not once was she actually measured. In other words they were guessed.

The doctors and nurses in the theatre were great but the ones I met on the ward were a waste of time. Couldn't find one when you needed one. Stood at the service station all day chatting. If asked a question an answer was too much trouble. To get them to do something was a chore. What service for a young mother to experience when in my opinion all her problems had arisen from their neglect.

Daughter number two gave birth also 6 weeks later, she also had a ceaserian, due to the size of the baby, he weighed 9lbs 14ozs. She had a previous caesarean with her first baby but that was due to the baby being breech, therefore no reason why she couldn't have a normal delivery this time. Unfortunately they decided her second baby was breech therefore she would need a caesarean again. At 36 weeks they again decided the baby was still the wrong way round but just in case they scanned her and guess what 3 nurses and 2 doctors were wrong because the baby was the correct way round.

She decided to have a normal delivery and they gave her a day to go into hospital to have the baby. She went in and they then decided for whatever reason to leave her another week. Went in again and they yet again decided to leave her another 5 days. She then went into labour from home, got to hospital, tried for 12 hours to deliver but the baby would not come down the bend of the birth canal so she decided to have a caesarean instead of forceps. When he was finally born they relised with his weight why she was struggling to give birth. These doctors and nurses yet again were great.

Once on the ward a different story. I feel she was neglected. Left in her own blood for 4hours, checked over by a nurse who pressed down on her stomach not knowing she had had a ceasarean. Her hospital notes were never visible, so when they took her blood pressure and baby's info they did all the patient together, i.e. 5 at a time and then went to the service desk and filled them in. Her notes showed she had been out of bed and had a bath on the day that she had given birth which was not true.

Left to feed her baby through the night, not able to get out of bed due to having just give birth. Rang the bell for painkillers but did not receive so rang the bell again and still didn't receive, finally got them from me (her mother) when i went to visit her that night. The staff were very unapproachable, in fact quite rude. They talk about keeping hospitals clean regarding the MRSA bug, but what about the one-on-one customer care?

I always believe in speaking and dealing with people as i would like done to me. It costs nothing to be polite. But i wouldn't treat a dog the way I feel both of my daughters have been treated.

Been wanting to put something in writing but didn't know who to write to, so when i saw this on GMTV this morning i thought great, finally someone to talk to. I just needed to get this off my chest. Its been eating me away. So annoyed, angry and very dissappointed.

I would like to take this opppunity to Thank you so much for listening. It's helped a lot.