"I gave birth to my second child ..."

What could be improved

I gave birth to my second child in L&D recently. With my first child I (also L&D) was left waiting in terrible pain for an epidural as no one to administer one. I was assured this was not the case now as this was sorted out. I was once again left begging and crying for a epidural for over 3 hours and though i finally received one i was one of the lucky ones and had to endure the screams of other ladies not so lucky as the person administering epidurals returned to theatre leaving them in pain. It really is terrifying to be in so much pain and be denied proper pain relief with out knowing when your pain will end, IT IS BARBARIC!!!. This does not happen in any other ward only the labour ward, you do not cut someone open without adequate pain relief or advise someone who has had an arm severed "sorry there is no one available to give you pain relief".

I feel the L&D should deal with their staffing issues properly instead of fobbing women off, or just abandoning them to labour or trying to make them feel guilty about the fact there is an emergency and that is why they can't have pain relief. This is not just a one off with the L&D but a regular thing.