"Terrible experiences at the maternity hospital"

Currently nearing the end of my second pregnancy and feeling extremely anxious about coming to Aberdeen Maternity Hospital for the birth because of my previous traumatic experience in and after labour and also because of some of the treatment I have received during this pregnancy. Really don’t know who to speak to about this so after being handed a slip of paper today at the hospital saying to provide feedback on this website I have decided to give this a go.

I want to start by saying that all of the midwife care I have received at the hospital has been fantastic, during my previous pregnancy, during care after miscarriages and during this pregnancy (including visits to the day unit and Rubislaw) all of the midwives have been very kind, professional and made me feel very comfortable.

When I had my son in 2014 the experience I had at this hospital was terrible. My waters broke2 days after my due date. I came into the hospital the following day after being sent by my community midwife who checked that my waters had in fact gone, to be told at the hospital that my waters hadn’t broken and that I must have had an accident. I was not having regular contractions and I was sent home. That night my contractions became more regular and I phoned the hospital to be told that they weren’t regular enough and I should stay home.

The next day my community midwife got in touch to see how I was doing and I explained I was at home, she came round and rechecked me and said my waters had definitely broken and phoned the hospital and said I needed to be admitted. I came to the hospital and was told I would be induced because my waters had broken and after being checked it was clear my cervix had started dilating so I did not require a pessary and could go straight into full induction. The midwife care I received for my induction was great. I had some bad reactions to the painkillers given by the doctors and they were unable to stop me from being sick which made labour quite challenging. I had an epidural which was unfortunately not fully effective.

By midday on the day after I was admitted I was told to start pushing, I was told if I was still pushing after an hour that a doctor would come and assist. The doctors were busy due to emergencies and so I ended up pushing for 3 hours. At 3pm a doctor came into the room, carried out an episiotomy and used forceps to deliver my son. Needless to say by this point I was exhausted.

Not long after delivery I was told I needed to go and shower, I didn’t really feel up to it but went and a nurse became concerned about my breathing and so I was put on an ECG and told I wasn’t allowed out of my bed anymore. They were concerned because I seemed so out of breath – I was sure it was just because I was exhausted but understood they needed to be cautious. My son was then taken away to neonatal because they suspected his breathing wasn’t right either. My husband was told he needed to go home and I spent a lot of the night in the recovery room before being moved to the ward.

No one gave me any news about my son or took me to go and see him until the early hours. At this stage, I was told he was being monitored. That night I was told that he seemed to be doing fine and I would get him on the ward with me the following morning. I was still not allowed to walk and was restricted to bed or a wheelchair. On Saturday morning I was wheeled to the neonatal and couldn’t see my baby in the cot he had been in- instead he was in an incubator with a cannula in his head. This was very upsetting to see, and when I asked what was going on I was told that he had severe jaundice and would require a blood transfusion. Obviously, I was very upset and worried.

I was then taken to the scanning department to have a scan of my chest because a blood clot had been suspected. Scan was clear, there was nothing wrong with me, I was finally allowed out of the wheelchair/bed. I received a call to go to neonatal and went, and there I was told that a doctor had made a mistake reading my sons chart, and had basically read it upside down so that they thought he had the most severe reading for jaundice and required a transfusion, but in fact he had the most mild reading and only required a couple of hours light therapy.

Thankfully, the transfusion hadn’t been carried out before the mistake was noticed and although I was relieved my baby was healthy it was incredibly traumatic to be told this incorrect news and think he was put through the experience of having the cannula etc that were totally unnecessary. On Saturday night my son was brought to me on the ward finally, and on Sunday we went home. I felt very relieved to leave the hospital.

Unfortunately, I had to go back because my midwife noticed my uterus was not shrinking back down and I was in considerable pain, experiencing very bleeding and not feeling well at all. We came back to the hospital about two weeks after my delivery and I was scanned and the sonographer told me that I had retained placenta and that the piece left behind was quite large so could not be passed and I would require an operation to have it removed. We were sent to the doctor who had delivered our son and she said I needed to take antibiotics and go home and it would pass. It didn’t and after several days I was in a lot of pain still and not feeling better so we went back to the hospital, this time we saw the senior registrar who apologised to me and said I shouldn’t have been sent home and that I needed an operation to have the placenta removed, which he carried out the same day and I went home the following day.

I experienced severe pain down below after giving birth, but as this was my first baby I didn’t know what to expect. After a couple of months still in pain I felt like something was wrong, I went to my GP and explained that I was still in pain and that things didn’t look right to me- I was told bluntly that things look different after child birth and no action was taken. I felt embarrassed and so just carried on as I was, sore and worried but I didn’t seek help.

It wasn’t until 2015 that I went back to the doctors because of unusual bleeding (due to a polyp) and decided to raise my concerns again. The doctor said I needed a referral to a gynaecologist but that the waiting list was long- I had private health insurance and so used this to avoid some waiting time and was referred to a private hospital. It was discovered that I had experienced a perineal tear during labour (not the episiotomy which was stitched up after labour) but an actual tear that had not been stitched up and was the reason for my pain and why things didn’t look right. I had a perineorrhaphy to repair the damage and was told at the time of surgery that if I had another vaginal birth, it would not hold and I would need the repairs carried out again. At this point, I was so traumatised I said that it didn’t matter as I wouldn’t have any more children.

Three years later and I’m getting ready to have my next baby in a few weeks time and I am absolutely terrified. I have tried to speak to various doctors about my worries during this pregnancy in the hope that there can be some sort of plan/reassurance that these things won’t happen to me again. I am under consultant led care for this pregnancy because of some complications I have endured.

I had a hematoma which caused bleeding in early pregnancy, one of the doctors I saw told me when I was 20 weeks pregnant that a hematoma was just a threatened miscarriage and then continued to explain in great depth to both myself and the student doctor in the room that if I had further bleeding there was nothing they would do for my baby until he was about 24 weeks or until he weighed more than a bag of sugar, otherwise they don’t get involved because it’s not like they could save him. Very upsetting to hear and I had not realised that I was at an increased chance of having a miscarriage late in pregnancy.

I had seen a different doctor each time I attended the hospital and every doctor seems to have a different opinion and give different answers. I met my actual consultant last week. I was pleased to meet the person who would be responsible for my care, but after my appointment, I left feeling incredibly upset and disappointed. I was told that having retained placenta only requires a very small operation and that I can always go privately to have repairs carried out postpartum again. I don’t think this is the correct attitude at all. After leaving the hospital with your baby you expect to be able to stay home- not have to go back for further operations. I have absolutely no trust in my consultant or the hospital and actually wake up in the night scared about what is going to happen.

I’m not the type of person who complains, but my life has been really affected by these experiences and I am genuinely very anxious and outright frightened about what will happen to me this time. I wish there was an alternative hospital I could go to in Aberdeen but there is not. All I had hoped for was to have a doctor who was capable of showing some compassion for how I feel instead of dismissing me. I appreciate that the staff are very busy but the treatment I have been given and will be given will have an impact on my life, either positive or negative, but it seems to be the latter consistently.