My C-section went wrong..advice needed please

themaccas

Just wanted to add that I am amazed women who are obese or are smokers want to blame everything and everyone else for their problems following surgery. If you try and point out that their smoking or obesity is a major contributing factor to their problems they take this as a personal afront. Write a complaint to the complaints department if you think that will make things better. What it will do is probably take the surgeons and nurses and midwives several hours out of their working day. If you are wondering why there are not enough nurses and midwives working then look at the environment they are working in - you all know it very well, the stress, blame, workload they are under it is no wonder they leave. Many maternity units are understaffed by around 20 full time midwives alone. So before you or your partner start going off on one to the poor staff just know that they are doing their best in pretty awful circumstances and that complaint letter will be another reason for them to think about a new career and there will be no one to take his/her place.

Honestly it's like a feeding frenzy on here at times with everyone goading the OP to demand action. The midwife did nothing wrong she checked and double checked before removing the sutures, there is no guarantee that wouldn't have happened anyhow at day 10. I don't think you have any complaint here I'm afraid and we are only hearing one side of the story.

lynn44

themaccas

I am NOT PROUD to be a smoker and am trying very hard to give up this addiction!!

The medical team were fully aware of my chest problems before c section was planned , That is why re inforced stitches SHOULD of been used.

I lost out on nearly 3 weeks with my newborn son and family BECAUSE so many mistakes were made and could of been avoided!!

You say only my part of the story, I have it all in writing in my ante/post natal folder, I was leaking HEAVILY AND IT WAS IGNORED MANY TIMES !

I WANT ANSWERS AND IF IT SAVES ONE OTHER MUM GOING THROUGH WHAT I HAVE BEEN THROUGH THEN THATS GOOD ENOUGH..

And what about my poor NON SMOKING partner what he has gone through too, He wants answers too..

annie_d

My C scar didnt heal for 16 weeks....by which time i was pregnant again and then it began to rupture as the baby grew. Midwives not terribly interested in clear fluid/blood loss. Lower abdomen STILL numb 25 years on. So the world turns. No help to OP but yes, thank God u r an older mum, u will cope. Good luck x

UKTigerlily

lynn44 wrote: »

themaccas

I am NOT PROUD to be a smoker and am trying very hard to give up this addiction!!

The medical team were fully aware of my chest problems before c section was planned , That is why re inforced stitches SHOULD of been used.

I lost out on nearly 3 weeks with my newborn son and family BECAUSE so many mistakes were made and could of been avoided!!

You say only my part of the story, I have it all in writing in my ante/post natal folder, I was leaking HEAVILY AND IT WAS IGNORED MANY TIMES !

I WANT ANSWERS AND IF IT SAVES ONE OTHER MUM GOING THROUGH WHAT I HAVE BEEN THROUGH THEN THATS GOOD ENOUGH..

And what about my poor NON SMOKING partner what he has gone through too, He wants answers too..

If I was your partner i'd've raised hell about you smoking throughout the pregnancy & insisted you stop before conception. I understand you're upset & have the complaint but it does sound like you brought it on yourself, if the Midwife had no notes (Which I agree should've been there), what could she do? As you said (No disrespect meant but you're not medically trained I don't think?) or as her boss & maybe experience says? Maybe they get alot of patients claiming someone said x/y or z was ok? I'm not saying you're wrong but maybe that's why the Midwife removed them, could nobody have contacted the Dr who said this? Surely hanging on to speak to him wouldn't have hurt anyone?

KellyWelly

So - people shouldn't complain if they get third rate care and mistakes are made that lead to suffering and pain? How will anyone learn and develop and make necessary changes? If nobody had ever complained about getting MRSA then would we have had the changes in practise we've seen over the past few years? Should everyone have shut up and taken it on the chin because we're all 'doing our best in difficult circumstances'? That's BS. Our NHS is free at the point of delivery but it's not free of charge. We pay for this service and it should be up to scratch. If it's not then you make it known.

cheepskate_2

lynn44 wrote: »

themaccas



I lost out on nearly 3 weeks with my newborn son

..

Due to your smoking you could have lost a lot more than 3 weeks with your son, you could have had none at all, obviously making sure that the health care pay for their " mistakes" is more importaint than making sure your unborn child was healthy

Theirs may have been a mistake, yours was downright ignorance.

Broken_hearted

cheepskate wrote: »

Due to your smoking you could have lost a lot more than 3 weeks with your son, you could have had none at all, obviously making sure that the health care pay for their " mistakes" is more importaint than making sure your unborn child was healthy

Theirs may have been a mistake, yours was downright ignorance.

When I was born by c section many years ago my mother was a smoker as were many women, they expected to be treated the same as any other person. How dare you sit there and bully someone for doing something which is legal and addictive. If you wish something constructive to be done write to the government requesting they ban cigarettes outright. Well you can try but they make too much money from it.
The hospital messed up whether she smoked or not they caused the problem. Come back when you have suffered the same neglect so we can tell you tough.

Broken_hearted

UKTigerlily wrote: »

If I was your partner i'd've raised hell about you smoking throughout the pregnancy & insisted you stop before conception. I understand you're upset & have the complaint but it does sound like you brought it on yourself, if the Midwife had no notes (Which I agree should've been there), what could she do? As you said (No disrespect meant but you're not medically trained I don't think?) or as her boss & maybe experience says? Maybe they get alot of patients claiming someone said x/y or z was ok? I'm not saying you're wrong but maybe that's why the Midwife removed them, could nobody have contacted the Dr who said this? Surely hanging on to speak to him wouldn't have hurt anyone?

Great idea then she could go into shock and do more damage. Advice recomends coming off slowly.

Lois_and_CK

Actually, nicotine leaves the body three days after quitting smoking. After that you're just dealing with the habit, not the addiction. While cutting down slowly might work for some people, it's not a hard and fast rule for everyone. There's nothing wrong with choosing a day to quit completely - in fact Quitline recommends decent preparation (keeping a diary, getting support of friends and family, cleaning the house to get rid of smoke smells, etc.), but they also say to choose a day to stop. You certainly won't go into shock if you quit all at once (but you may well be a moody cow like I was! )

There are 12 million ex smokers in the UK. Personally, I felt there wasn't a bigger incentive to quit than for the people I love unconditionally. That's certainly why I quit, because it broke my husband's heart to see me killing myself.

P.S. (Disclaimer: I'm not passing judgement on OP; this is just a response to ways and means of quitting smoking)

meeps

I have come back to this thread a couple of times as I also had problems with the birth of my son 5 years ago (nothing as bad, a dural tap etc) but wanted to say something that nobody else has yet- that although you need answers to why everything didn't go as well as it could have, could you leave it a little while and focus on getting yourself healed and those precious first months with your baby- as you say you have missed out on enjoying the first weeks, don't let this issue take over - perhaps write everything down, and set it aside until you are feeling strong and ready to deal with it head on.