"Shambles, would never go back"

I had my son in November 2016

I had to be induced at 38 weeks due to a pre-existing medical condition. The Maternity refurbishment I guess was at it's peak, as they had closed the birthing suite and everything was backed up. The morning I was scheduled to go in for this very specific period was moved back to the afternoon, and my induction did not begin until 1 am the following morning. I had to have the full works for the induction, and did not deliver until 38+6. Some of the delay was my own body not being ready, but a lot was down to the team not wanting me to progress as they had no beds to move me on to. It was bad enough to be left in a busy ward being handed over to midwives that did not read my notes, saying I was being induced because I had a big baby (he was at 95th centile but this was most definitely not the reason), towards the end I was told I could no longer use gas and air for my contractions as 'it wouldn't be effective later on (which didn't matter, I was getting an epidural anyway because of my condition, again, all in my notes) all the while being off blood thinners that I was supposed to only avoid taking for 24 hours. It was only when I finally got on the labour ward and was seen by a surgeon when they realised that they should have sped things up from the beginning. Once again, as the hormone drip ramped my contractions up, and I couldn't speak, the midwives asked my partner what pain relief I wanted (check my notes!!)

Baby was born with infection markers, so unfortunately we were stuck in hospital another 6 days. During which he was subjected to a number of upsetting tests. The midwives kept ripping the curtains around my bed open, one time when I was visibly upset with my partner, and showed no empathy or offering to close the curtains again, so I am bawling my eyes out in the middle of a ward with all eyes on me. They were also extremely rude about my partner having to leave as 'the females don't want a man about', even though there are dads about all the time with their new babies, at all hours, and there was a lady across from me that didn't speak a word of English and would have appreciated her partner being there with her I'm sure. I was also promised more assistance with breastfeeding and was left without it. Not that the ward and the constant interruptions was a good place to try to establish good breastfeeding. The Heath Care Assistants were great, but the midwives apart from a couple were abrasive, rushed and indifferent really. I could not wait to get out of there, my son was born on the Monday morning and we had ourselves discharged at 2-3 o'clock the following Saturday morning.

We would like another child, but I am hoping we can go to another hospital as I am sure I now have PTSD from the experience and dread going there(I have to go regularly for my medication and for blood tests).

I don't even want to follow up, I just wanted to get this out there. It took months to physically heal, mentally, who knows...