"Antenatal/Consultant appts"

Every time i have been for an appointment at the antenatal department in Royal Gwent, ive been left for hours at a time. One time in particular my partner and i arrived half an hour early for a growth scan with my consultants, and were left in the waiting room for 4 hours before being seen. We had our son with us, who was 9 months old at the time and obviously very restless waiting around tired and hungry with a bunch of strangers. No consideration was given for this, and people that arrived hours after us were called into see the consultant before us!

Furthermore, when the car park of the hospital was being worked on, due to parking issues I was once 10 minutes late to my appointment. On arriving at the antenatal clinic I explained why we were late and apologised. I was seated in the waiting room for 30 minutes before a midwife approached me to tell me that my consultant had gone home! Absolutely appalled!

Its all very well for us to be left hours at a time, and have no apology or explanation for this, but when we were 10 minutes late our consultant went home!

When I gave birth to my son, the care my partner and I received left much to be desired. I arrived at 41+5 weeks to be induced, and it was a train wreck from start to finish. My waters were broken at 1cm dilated, even though my son was not engaged, and the risk of cord prolapse that this presented was not explained to me or my partner. Since cord prolapse is a potentially life threatening occurrence we feel that my consultant had no business making this sort of decision for us.

During my painful contractions (brought on by the hormone drip), I was told to 'just have the epidural, you wont be able to handle the pain'. This is what passes as supporting and empowering birthing women? ! 3 times the same woman came into my room and made comments about how I was handling the pain, saying 'god we can hear you down the corridor' and; just have the epidural'.

When I finally accepted the epidural after 7 hours of very painful forced contractions, the same woman entered the room and pronounced 'were taking you in for a c-section because your failing to progress and your baby's heart rate is decelerating'.

There was no discussion, no one asked for my or my partners opinion, and no one asked how either of us were feeling. While in theatre my partner was told to sit in a chair behind me and wasn't allowed to come near me or touch me. None of the staff in the room checked how I was feeling other than a lovely porter who was helping to move me about while they prepped me.

From the very start of the induction, my partner was treated like a nuisance, shoved in a corner and plied with black coffee. He wasn't offered the chance to be involved in my labour and had no idea how to help me, because he wasn't being supported himself. It was only because I specifically requested that he hold our son first after the birth, that my partner was acknowledged at all.

This was our first baby, and was supposed to be an experience we look back on fondly, with good memories, yet we cant do so because the experience was traumatic for us both.

So thank you Royal Gwent Hospital for ruining what should have been a wonderful magical experience for our little family!