This isn’t new. There’s reports going back more than 10 years estimating about half of all stillbirths/neonatal deaths are due to inadequate care.
Harmless_Drone on
our firstborn son almost died because the midwives didn’t believe she could possibly be giving birth so quickly after their last check. They were then more concerned with getting their paperwork sorted for shift handover then actually helping. I had to go and beg them to help 3 or 4 times before finally they came and checked her and rushed her to the emergency birthing room as they thought she may need an emergency c-section.
In the end, she didn’t, but they had to do some extremely unpleasant things with forceps and repositioning the little one because the lack of attention had caused him to get stuck at the wrong angle. I’m just glad it turned out okay but the mental scars my wife had from it made her depressed for the best part of a year after the birth. It wasn’t till we had our second child and the birth was a lot smoother she really recovered.
It may not be midwives in general, but the vibe I got the entire time I was there is that first time mothers are treated as hysterical and shouldn’t be listened to as they don’t know what they’re doing.
Toastlove on
I’ll counter that my partner had a pretty difficult birth and needed to stay in a few nights. All the staff on all shifts were fantastic and she couldn’t believe how good everyone was with her. We’d both read the horror stories and of course our single experience doesn’t prove the others wrong, but it was easily the best experience of the NHS we’ve had and a fantastic advert for having a national health service. After it I couldn’t help thinking how expensive it would have been had we been in the USA.
On the flip side, her father in law was in hospital at the same time and spent two nights in a chair due to lack of beds.
anonymouse39993 on
I genuinely believe midwives should have to train as nurses first
NoTimeToWine on
Doesn’t surprise me. Had an awful experience from start to finish.
Begging and pleading for pain relief for hours until the point I lost it and was hobbling along the corridor in agony leaving a huge trail of blood shouting for someone to come. I found some staff eventually – 4 of them sat in a room on their phones eating biscuits. What a joke the so-called health service has become.
kripantina on
I think the problem lies within the initial low risk/high risk assessment. If you’re initially low risk, it is nearly impossible to get any attention beyond midwife – who might have the best intentions at heart but unfortunately lack training. I knew my baby was breech – I could feel legs kicking down, feel hiccups up and see arm swipes. Yet I could not secure the consultant/scan referral because “your baby is head down just got the face forward, still plenty of time to turn, all is fine”. Only got consultant referral after private scan on week 37 clearly showing she’s bloody breech! And that’s been 3 midwives looking/feeling around – I think they well knew she’s breech, just didn’t want me get elective c section, because “statistics”. Emergency is an emergency and they’re not liable.
Yorkshireteaonly on
Maternity care is abysmal. There’s a trend towards dismissing mother’s concerns, so this is entirely unsurprising. I have a number of friends and family members who have gone to the hospital in labour only to be told to go home. After practically begging to be checked the nurses/midwives have said „oh you’re further along than I thought, you need to stay here“. That’s only after they’ve huffed and puffed about the mother kicking up a fuss. Imagine the danger those women were in who didn’t kick up a fuss, or who did but were still ignored.
Wild_Cauliflower_970 on
My waters broke at 17 weeks. Because my local maternity unit was so poor and because I was in the process of moving house (and should’ve moved by my due date), I was booked in with another hospital – 2 hours away. That hospital told me to go to my local hospital and I said that I didn’t want to because the care is so poor. They urged me to go as quickly as possible, I said that I would be stuck in A&E for hours, they phoned ahead and got confirmation I would go straight to maternity and not be stuck in A&E. We arrived – they wouldn’t let us in, forced to wait in A&E.
Two hours later, I was triaged – they did my blood pressure, my temperature and a Covid swab. Nothing else. I asked how long it’d be before I could go to maternity. They told me I couldn’t – maternity is only for 20 weeks onwards. My pregnancy wasn’t viable. It would be 5-6 hours to see a doctor in A&E.
We left. We drove the two hours to the other hospital, and I was seen by a doctor within five minutes. My non-viable pregnancy is three years old today. They managed to keep her cooking for a further 17 weeks – born healthy, happy and absolutely tiny. And now she’s ready to take on the world. She has a weakened immune system so that non-viable pregnancy has already fought measles, sepsis, scarlet fever, chicken pox and has a blood sugar disorder. And that same hospital have been brilliant every, single time.
I wish more women were aware that you can book into any hospital – you do not have to go local. You can see your CQC report of the maternity unit. Your care will not be the same everywhere.
nw_mind on
When I was moving to the UK five years ago, my Czech gynaecologist told me to fly back for any tests if I get pregnant, because many tests that are a part of basic pregnancy care in the Czech Republic are not done in the UK.
SUPBarefoot_BeachBum on
I think as usual this is probably down to postcode lottery. Thankfully I had a wonderfully positive experience at our maternity unit. I had extra monitoring throughout pregnancy due to hypertension, due to popping in weekly I must have met every midwife and they were all wonderful and supportive. I wish our NHS would be funded and cared for properly and protected from government.
refundpackage on
My partner recently gave birth to our daughter and I can honestly say the staff were beyond terrible. Not one did I meet while there (she was in for almost a week) was decent. Paperwork and handovers has taken over. Multiple staff sat around the desk “doing paperwork” for what seemed like all day.
Ongoing issues throughout pregnancy were not taken seriously, my partner was dismissed on every single occasion.
I’m happy for those stories that went well and staff were good and I’m sorry people in America have to pay for their medical needs but neither of those things have any relevance to how the NHS neglects their patients.
maregare on
When I was pregnant with our twins, one of our daughters was head first down, the other was transverse.
Consultant offered me a natural birth and said we can always do an emergency csection if daughter 2 doesn’t turn and gets in trouble.
It was just such a weird thing to say. To this day, I can’t make any sense of it. Opted for a planned csection instead.
However, that really was the only hiccup. I was really happy with the rest of our care.
WhyHereLife on
I’m sure that this will be all over the twitter accounts of the „protectong women and children crowd“
They’ll be up in arms, protesting, findings court cases…
Average_sheep1411 on
We are going to have to learn to advocate for ourselves more and more as services become overstretched.
broccoli-fingers on
Oh you mean all those wonderful nurses that have been shipped over? Not working out as expected? .. well colour me shocked, it’s almost as if hiring people from countries with far lower health and training standards is a bad idea
More money won’t solve this issue, it’ll make it worse
parrotanalogies on
Not surprised, my partner is an anaesthetist and the amount of bullshit midwives pull to avoid doing anything floors me. Will call for him in the middle of the night to fix a pump because it… wasn’t turned on at the wall. Plus the fact they aren’t actually trained as nurses first explains a lot re: the lack of medical knowledge.
Emergency-Job4136 on
Female friends who moved to the U.K. (or back to the U.K. after being abroad a few years) were a bit shocked that gynae checkups are done by a nurse rather than a doctor. A friend who moved back with a newborn said she has been to the GP around 6 times in the past two years for various things but never met any of the doctors.
LittleGreenCowboy on
I had gestational diabetes that went undiagnosed until 36w4 because my persistent fainting, dizziness, night sweats, and spots in my vision were dismissed as anxiety. Thank god my son was ok, although he ended up being born at 37 weeks and needing to stay in the hospital for 10 days. What’s worse is I should have had the screening test (Indian with strong family history of blood sugar issues) but wasn’t offered.
[deleted] on
[removed]
Feeling_Picture8721 on
When I had my first, my labour was extremely slow and I was at 42 weeks. At the twelve hour mark I was told to come in for monitoring, but I had expressed concerns of reduced movement.
While i was in the maternity suite, 2 midwives dismissed my concerns and another told me I came in too early. my baby was moving less, I was dismissed every time and one midwife called me a wimp for taking up a bed when I was only 3cm dilated.
It wasn’t until my husband went and found a matron, told them how long I’d been in labour, with broken waters for 12 hours and the baby was moving less and less, that it was taken seriously. Ended up being an emergency C-section.
Not surprised at those statistics.
Toasty_Slug on
When I was with my friend while she was giving birth many of the nurses were young students who’d never been a midwife before or given birth themselves and were telling her to push if she wanted to when she wasn’t fully dilated. I had to tell her ignore them and only push when her body wanted to, when she was fully dilated, not just push cos she felt like it!
FJdawncastings on
We had a few shocking experiences at our son’s birth
The first was a membrane sweep being performed without consent. Then they forgot to disconnect her from the epidural, so she was on it for 5 hours longer than needed
Not very confidence inspiring
veritty on
Exactly why I chose an elective caesarean both times. no chance I am risking my health or my babies because of egotistical midwives who think they know everything.
wurst_katastrophe on
Left the UK for childbirth. Sorry, too risky – yet the majority is celebrating this madness.
Only_Tip9560 on
My son was born with a severe infection and spent ages in NICU and easily could have died because they did not follow their own guidelines and induce within 24 hours after waters broke. My wife was repeatedly dismissed by midwives as she was not in labour despite her saying that it had been some time since her waters broke.
South_Plant_7876 on
Not quite as serious, but hours after my wife gave birth we attended a little talk on the ward about breast feeding. It was billed as a nice chilled little chat with mother and baby over a cup of tea.
It ended up being more like the jobseekers class from League of Gentlemen. The woman would stare daggers at any babies who cried (bearing in mind they were only a couple of hours old), haranged a couple of late comers and basically cut down any contributions offered by the audience. One woman left crying.
Was the most bizarre thing I have ever seen. And yet I am sure this class is emblazoned on every pamphlet as one of the many ways the NHS supports new parents.
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26 Kommentare
This isn’t new. There’s reports going back more than 10 years estimating about half of all stillbirths/neonatal deaths are due to inadequate care.
our firstborn son almost died because the midwives didn’t believe she could possibly be giving birth so quickly after their last check. They were then more concerned with getting their paperwork sorted for shift handover then actually helping. I had to go and beg them to help 3 or 4 times before finally they came and checked her and rushed her to the emergency birthing room as they thought she may need an emergency c-section.
In the end, she didn’t, but they had to do some extremely unpleasant things with forceps and repositioning the little one because the lack of attention had caused him to get stuck at the wrong angle. I’m just glad it turned out okay but the mental scars my wife had from it made her depressed for the best part of a year after the birth. It wasn’t till we had our second child and the birth was a lot smoother she really recovered.
It may not be midwives in general, but the vibe I got the entire time I was there is that first time mothers are treated as hysterical and shouldn’t be listened to as they don’t know what they’re doing.
I’ll counter that my partner had a pretty difficult birth and needed to stay in a few nights. All the staff on all shifts were fantastic and she couldn’t believe how good everyone was with her. We’d both read the horror stories and of course our single experience doesn’t prove the others wrong, but it was easily the best experience of the NHS we’ve had and a fantastic advert for having a national health service. After it I couldn’t help thinking how expensive it would have been had we been in the USA.
On the flip side, her father in law was in hospital at the same time and spent two nights in a chair due to lack of beds.
I genuinely believe midwives should have to train as nurses first
Doesn’t surprise me. Had an awful experience from start to finish.
Begging and pleading for pain relief for hours until the point I lost it and was hobbling along the corridor in agony leaving a huge trail of blood shouting for someone to come. I found some staff eventually – 4 of them sat in a room on their phones eating biscuits. What a joke the so-called health service has become.
I think the problem lies within the initial low risk/high risk assessment. If you’re initially low risk, it is nearly impossible to get any attention beyond midwife – who might have the best intentions at heart but unfortunately lack training. I knew my baby was breech – I could feel legs kicking down, feel hiccups up and see arm swipes. Yet I could not secure the consultant/scan referral because “your baby is head down just got the face forward, still plenty of time to turn, all is fine”. Only got consultant referral after private scan on week 37 clearly showing she’s bloody breech! And that’s been 3 midwives looking/feeling around – I think they well knew she’s breech, just didn’t want me get elective c section, because “statistics”. Emergency is an emergency and they’re not liable.
Maternity care is abysmal. There’s a trend towards dismissing mother’s concerns, so this is entirely unsurprising. I have a number of friends and family members who have gone to the hospital in labour only to be told to go home. After practically begging to be checked the nurses/midwives have said „oh you’re further along than I thought, you need to stay here“. That’s only after they’ve huffed and puffed about the mother kicking up a fuss. Imagine the danger those women were in who didn’t kick up a fuss, or who did but were still ignored.
My waters broke at 17 weeks. Because my local maternity unit was so poor and because I was in the process of moving house (and should’ve moved by my due date), I was booked in with another hospital – 2 hours away. That hospital told me to go to my local hospital and I said that I didn’t want to because the care is so poor. They urged me to go as quickly as possible, I said that I would be stuck in A&E for hours, they phoned ahead and got confirmation I would go straight to maternity and not be stuck in A&E. We arrived – they wouldn’t let us in, forced to wait in A&E.
Two hours later, I was triaged – they did my blood pressure, my temperature and a Covid swab. Nothing else. I asked how long it’d be before I could go to maternity. They told me I couldn’t – maternity is only for 20 weeks onwards. My pregnancy wasn’t viable. It would be 5-6 hours to see a doctor in A&E.
We left. We drove the two hours to the other hospital, and I was seen by a doctor within five minutes. My non-viable pregnancy is three years old today. They managed to keep her cooking for a further 17 weeks – born healthy, happy and absolutely tiny. And now she’s ready to take on the world. She has a weakened immune system so that non-viable pregnancy has already fought measles, sepsis, scarlet fever, chicken pox and has a blood sugar disorder. And that same hospital have been brilliant every, single time.
I wish more women were aware that you can book into any hospital – you do not have to go local. You can see your CQC report of the maternity unit. Your care will not be the same everywhere.
When I was moving to the UK five years ago, my Czech gynaecologist told me to fly back for any tests if I get pregnant, because many tests that are a part of basic pregnancy care in the Czech Republic are not done in the UK.
I think as usual this is probably down to postcode lottery. Thankfully I had a wonderfully positive experience at our maternity unit. I had extra monitoring throughout pregnancy due to hypertension, due to popping in weekly I must have met every midwife and they were all wonderful and supportive. I wish our NHS would be funded and cared for properly and protected from government.
My partner recently gave birth to our daughter and I can honestly say the staff were beyond terrible. Not one did I meet while there (she was in for almost a week) was decent. Paperwork and handovers has taken over. Multiple staff sat around the desk “doing paperwork” for what seemed like all day.
Ongoing issues throughout pregnancy were not taken seriously, my partner was dismissed on every single occasion.
I’m happy for those stories that went well and staff were good and I’m sorry people in America have to pay for their medical needs but neither of those things have any relevance to how the NHS neglects their patients.
When I was pregnant with our twins, one of our daughters was head first down, the other was transverse.
Consultant offered me a natural birth and said we can always do an emergency csection if daughter 2 doesn’t turn and gets in trouble.
It was just such a weird thing to say. To this day, I can’t make any sense of it. Opted for a planned csection instead.
However, that really was the only hiccup. I was really happy with the rest of our care.
I’m sure that this will be all over the twitter accounts of the „protectong women and children crowd“
They’ll be up in arms, protesting, findings court cases…
We are going to have to learn to advocate for ourselves more and more as services become overstretched.
Oh you mean all those wonderful nurses that have been shipped over? Not working out as expected? .. well colour me shocked, it’s almost as if hiring people from countries with far lower health and training standards is a bad idea
More money won’t solve this issue, it’ll make it worse
Not surprised, my partner is an anaesthetist and the amount of bullshit midwives pull to avoid doing anything floors me. Will call for him in the middle of the night to fix a pump because it… wasn’t turned on at the wall. Plus the fact they aren’t actually trained as nurses first explains a lot re: the lack of medical knowledge.
Female friends who moved to the U.K. (or back to the U.K. after being abroad a few years) were a bit shocked that gynae checkups are done by a nurse rather than a doctor. A friend who moved back with a newborn said she has been to the GP around 6 times in the past two years for various things but never met any of the doctors.
I had gestational diabetes that went undiagnosed until 36w4 because my persistent fainting, dizziness, night sweats, and spots in my vision were dismissed as anxiety. Thank god my son was ok, although he ended up being born at 37 weeks and needing to stay in the hospital for 10 days. What’s worse is I should have had the screening test (Indian with strong family history of blood sugar issues) but wasn’t offered.
[removed]
When I had my first, my labour was extremely slow and I was at 42 weeks. At the twelve hour mark I was told to come in for monitoring, but I had expressed concerns of reduced movement.
While i was in the maternity suite, 2 midwives dismissed my concerns and another told me I came in too early. my baby was moving less, I was dismissed every time and one midwife called me a wimp for taking up a bed when I was only 3cm dilated.
It wasn’t until my husband went and found a matron, told them how long I’d been in labour, with broken waters for 12 hours and the baby was moving less and less, that it was taken seriously. Ended up being an emergency C-section.
Not surprised at those statistics.
When I was with my friend while she was giving birth many of the nurses were young students who’d never been a midwife before or given birth themselves and were telling her to push if she wanted to when she wasn’t fully dilated. I had to tell her ignore them and only push when her body wanted to, when she was fully dilated, not just push cos she felt like it!
We had a few shocking experiences at our son’s birth
The first was a membrane sweep being performed without consent. Then they forgot to disconnect her from the epidural, so she was on it for 5 hours longer than needed
Not very confidence inspiring
Exactly why I chose an elective caesarean both times. no chance I am risking my health or my babies because of egotistical midwives who think they know everything.
Left the UK for childbirth. Sorry, too risky – yet the majority is celebrating this madness.
My son was born with a severe infection and spent ages in NICU and easily could have died because they did not follow their own guidelines and induce within 24 hours after waters broke. My wife was repeatedly dismissed by midwives as she was not in labour despite her saying that it had been some time since her waters broke.
Not quite as serious, but hours after my wife gave birth we attended a little talk on the ward about breast feeding. It was billed as a nice chilled little chat with mother and baby over a cup of tea.
It ended up being more like the jobseekers class from League of Gentlemen. The woman would stare daggers at any babies who cried (bearing in mind they were only a couple of hours old), haranged a couple of late comers and basically cut down any contributions offered by the audience. One woman left crying.
Was the most bizarre thing I have ever seen. And yet I am sure this class is emblazoned on every pamphlet as one of the many ways the NHS supports new parents.