"Very poor birth experience"

We had an extremely poor birth experience having chosen the Barkantine Birth Centre. One of the main reasons we decided to have our baby in the BBC was that we were told if medical attention was required we would be in the hospital in 12 minutes, however from the time the ambulance was called to it arriving was 3.5 hours, but the time to being in room in the hospital was closer to 5 hours.

* Baby was back to back from the time we arrived at the BBC, we were told this is nothing to worry about and they would turn the baby * After the second midwife started, about 10 hours after being there, we were still told not to worry and the baby would turn. My wife was in more and more excruciating pain * At around 12.15am (16 hours of being in the BBC), with my wife screaming in pain by this stage, we were told they were transferring us to hospital and called the ambulance * After about 2 hours the ambulance had still not arrived, my wife was in agony screaming and we were left in the room alone with little support * After 3 hours I went to the midwife room and said enough is enough we cannot wait any longer so the head midwife called the ambulance again and said it was an emergency to increase priority with the ambulance * Around 3.5 hours after being called we were told they were arriving, my wife having been screaming in pain for the last couple of hours with little support from anyone.

Our midwife rushed in and said she needed to make it "look like an emergency" for the ambulance crew so would be fitting a cannula to my wife's wrist. The midwife was rushing and nervous and made several painful attempts, there was blood spurting everywhere and there was a big internal bruise. The midwife shouted at us at this point saying hurry up and walk faster - despite my wife being in severe pain and needing my assistance to walk - to "show the ambulance crew" this was an emergency.

* The ambulance driver got lost on the way to the hospital and drove the wrong way several times, it took around 30 minutes to get to the hospital. Our midwife came with us.

* Once at the hospital our midwife nor the ambulance crew knew the correct place for us to go and we ended up stuck in a corridor we couldn't get through as the midwife did not have her access card. All the while my wife screaming in pain as we are stuck in a corridor * Finally we ended up in ward 6 of the Royal London Hospital at 6am when the ambulance was called in the Barkantine at 12.15am. Once there the medical care was excellent