gave birth to prem baby alone/no pain relief

hunnybeanz

hiya, am just after a bit of advice really!
when i was pregnant with my youngest last year, i had a bad pregnancy. i bled from 5 weeks in, my waters broke partially at 8 weeks in, and i went into early labour at 12 weeks, all the while i was constantly leaking amniotic fluids through a hole in the womb that they didnt bother to look for.
i bled very heavily from 12 weeks, passed clots , smallest of them was 50p sized... passed literally hundreds everyday.
i went into hospital every single night from end of oct 06 until january 07 (not an exaggeration!) but they only kept me in twice, longest was for 3 nights and a consultant never came to see me.
on 9th january i went up with labour pains, my partner and i both made them keep me in.
i was having contractions every half hour - hour all day on the 9th.
at 6am onb the 10th i started having regular contractions. every 3 mins for 5mins.
i asked for pain relief religiously every hour as i was in so much pain.
i was told to stop imagining things, i was told to stop disturbing the other mums "who are really in labour", i was told i was constipated, i was told i was being over anxious. but i wasnt given pain relief.
one midwife felt my tummy during a contraction and said she couldnt feel a contraction, so calling me a liar.
at 8am on 11th jan i delivered my daughter, alone, in the middle of an open ward, with no pain relief, and the cord was wrapped around her neck.

when she was put onto scbu, she wouldnt feed for me. she still wont. they discharged her against my concerns. every day for a week, we had to take her back to the hospital as she wouldnt stop screaming (she still wont!!!)
because we kept taking her back, one of the consultants organized adoption process for us for both children. they didnt discuss it with us as they thought it was too difficult a decision for them to ask us to make.

luckily, when social services turned up, and we had spoken to her and found out what was happening, the kids stayed with us.

we've reached the end of the nhs complaints procedure now, with no joy. they just keep saying that "these things happen" and they have "spoken" to the staff in question. they've offered no official apology or anything.
we've had no explaination at all.

all we have heard is "i'm not going to try and excuse that....but...."

i've sent the case on to the medical investigations commision, but i dont really hold much hope.

as far as i can see, they all p*ss in the same pot.

any suggestions would be welcome???

dmg24

I can't think what newspaper it was, but one of the Sunday's has done a feature on cases like this today. Will see what I can find out ... x

I'm thinking it must have been the News of the World (my parents buy it, not me!), I'll give them a call in the morning and ask them not to throw it out. Have had a look at their website but can't find anything.

mum2one

you def have a case for negligence, I dont know if your a house holder with a mortgage - if you are and are insured most have legal cover and subject to them looking at the facts they may press ahead, otherwise if you do want to go down the legal route and u dont have legal cover then ring a few solicitors and ask if they do that type of work, if so could you book a free intro and go from there.

My heart went out to you, nobody should have to go through that, i had issues before my daughter was born, as id split up from her dad he was violent the midwife took it upon herself to get social services involved with a view to adoption - on that point I was lucky I already had a solicitor on board becoz of what he'd done, one stiff letter from her did the trick.

I think you were treated appalying re pain relief - it was arranged that I was to have an epidural Ive got a spinal injury 2 car accidenst, and that giving birth naturally was meant to be no go - what happened the hospital was that short staffed no epidural just gas and air - made me sick, nobody should have to be treated like a 2nd class citizen becoz there pregnant.

Def take a step back and decide what you want to achieve and go from there. x

hunnybeanz

mum2one wrote: »

as id split up from her dad he was violent the midwife took it upon herself to get social services involved with a view to adoption

i had that with my eldest!, although that time round they didnt actually involve SS. their reasoning was that because my ex was abusive and i was going to be living alone with my son, that we would both be vulnerable if he came round shouting the odds.
at one point they werent going to let me unless i could go and stay with someone... eg family or friends.

i think they just take one look at whatever situation youre in, and make a split second decision lol!
i know its not true of all staff, but in general i've found the nhs to be a right load of b*lls :rolleyes:


i'm not a home owner, i'm only 21 and in debt so living in a council house at the min (until we can get the finances sorted and settled).

hmmmmm....... makes you wonder if any of that was taken into account when they decided to assume i was attention seeking??

"young, council house girl on low income..... lets not bother with her........"

ooooh, sorry to any midwives reading that aren't like the ones i had....no offence intended personally.... just bloody annoys me lol!

am rambling......

boysmum3

I haven't posted for ages but I was moved to with your post. This seems to me to be an example of staff not being able to cope with non text book cases. So I will let off steam now with my experience....
I am 39+ weeks pregnant with my 4th baby and have not felt well since 5 weeks pregnant. Vomiting and nausea that is still with me...bleeding in early pregnancy, then from 26 weeks, breathlessness, palpitations, racing pulse, clamminess and just general feeling !!!!. I have an unstable pelvis and SPD so im a bit uncomfortable too - lol!!!!
If I had a pound for every time I was told "oh well dear you are pregnant" (usually said with a little giggle)... or "babys fine dear"....then this child would be going to private school!!!!!
At 31 weeks I was admitted with tachycardia - my pulse had gone up to 216 - it came down after drugs from the on call anaesthetist.
I was kept in and couldn't fault the care I got I had every test known to man - with no findings, then was sent home.
Well the symptoms persisted... my midwife referred me back - same old "babys fine dear". Then at 36 weeks saw a consultant (not my usual one) who took me seriously and referred me to a cardiologist. He said nothing clinically wrong that won't stop after baby born.
Now - fool that I am - I thought that when I went back to consultant (not same one as one who referred me) I would be booked for induction of labour as I was 38+5 days and have had 3 previous inductions for pelvic probs and big babies.
But apparantly not...... it is hospital policy not to induce before 39 wks so I have to go back this wednesday to discuss it again when I will be 2 days off term. I can't wait for my baby to be born and this is a much wanted baby but I feel like an incubator for the baby, and that it doesn't matter how I feel.
The registrar who saw me last wk didn't even read my notes, didn't listen to what I was saying, she talked over me explaining that induction could cause prolonged labour (my longest was about 4 hours) and laughed as I left (in tears) saying you will go into labour by yourself before then....to add insult to injury when I got home my handheld notes stated 'all well, keen for induction as has backache'!!!! I wish I had backache and not hips and sacro iliac joints that crunch and lock so i can't move!!!
Now at a 36 week scan my babys head circ was 35 cm and guestimate of weight was almost 8lb........god only knows what it weighs now.....!!! If it had been born at 38 + 6 I am sure it would have been robust enough...and I believe term is counted from 37wks???
I have never had post natal depression but this time i have had ante natal depression, feeling ill is no fun when you have a partner who works away and 3 other children to look after.
I have encountered some excellent members of staff in this pregnancy but they are wasting their time when they have to work with muppets who give the whole of the NHS a bad name!
I think this proves that women are not treated as individuals in pregnancy - I have 'all well' written in 4 places on my notes from check ups and at no stage have i said i was well.
I was sorry to hear that the OP has got nowhere with the complaints procedure...I don't suppose its even worth me making a complaint!
wow!!! long post - sorry to bore - but feels better getting it off my chest!!!

Jo_R_2

I don't know if you've already done this, but have you asked to see your maternity notes? I'm not sure if it would cast any light on anything, but reading through what you've said, it does sound strange that you've had this consistent treatment by midwives and the consultant.

I can relate to what you said about the midwife not being able to feel the contraction - I had this with DD1 and it turned out I had back labour - extremely painful, constant contractions (varies from person to person) but that are ib your back instead of your tummy so you can't always feel them as a midwife would do normally. I also birthed her by myself as no one realised I was in the second stage. I arranged a meeting through PALS at the hospital to read through my notes and I could tell straightaway before we'd even started discussing things that they thought I was going to make a complaint about giving birth alone. I didn't (just put it down to experience) but it really helped, although I'm wondering if things have maybe been written in your notes by some staff that others may have seen and acted accordingly upon?

Are the hospital aware that you are seeking an apology? It sounds from them saying "i'm not going to try and excuse that....but...." that they can see what has happened is not the ideal state of affairs. You say you want an explanation - are you clear on what exactly you want an explanation of? Maybe suggesting they review their bedside manner might be appropriate. I know that sometimes it can be difficult to tell how close someone is depending on circumstances but frankly the way they spoke to you is appalling, and I'd be clear when speaking with them that that is one thing that they need to address. Would that give you any kind of resolution?

tiamai_d

Have you thought that you may be suffering from post traumatic stress? This website was a god send for me. http://www.birthtraumaassociation.org.uk/

The treatment you received was horrible and the hospital should admit that it was in the wrong. But, this is a long and difficult process. And all the 'atleast you have a healthy baby' is a load of bull when you feel like this.

It won't solve anything, but the website above will at least confirm that your not alone.

inkie

But apparantly not...... it is hospital policy not to induce before 39 wks so I have to go back this wednesday to discuss it again when I will be 2 days off term. I can't wait for my baby to be born and this is a much wanted baby but I feel like an incubator for the baby, and that it doesn't matter how I feel.

I must say that this is a strange policy - there are clinical indications for inducing prior to 39 weeks (I'm a Midwife), I was induced at 38 weeks as baby was felt to be large, and i'd had a previous shoulder dystocia.

asea

oh my god that sounds horrific. i don't have anything of any value to say but my thoughts are with you & i'm glad that you & your baby are at least safe

Anthillmob

jesus christ i feel for you (and also anyone else affected by similar on this thread).

BrandNewDay

I am so, so sorry. A traumatic birth experience can really mess with a mother's mind for a long time afterwards. Mine was only sorta traumatic - pretty mild compared to others I've heard - and it bugged me for a long time. The only thing that made it better was to have a much more positive experience with my second child.