to think hospital treatment of pregnant women is pretty shit?

[TotorosOcarina]

Am basing this on my 1st birth in hospital and my treatment today (I had 2 homebirths and midwives who work in the community seem much better than hospital consultants!)

Firstly rang 'community midwives office' this morning as wee had tested + for some stuff ystay and woke up th reaa bad back ache and was advised on MN to get checked out as UTI could have spread to kidneys apparantly.

So call them and really snotty woman told me I need to ring triage, totally unfriendly and abrupt (how am i supposed to know who to ring first?!)
so ring triage. they say see GP.

So go to GP who says todays sample is 'glowing and riddled with allsorts'

i tell her I'm in pain around my back, she takes BP - its low.

She takes pulse, its high.

SHE says I have to go hospital to get checked out.

So I go, I wait, am seen by nice midwife wh does trace.

Then consultant comes in ....

Why are you here, she says - i explain.

why did you ahve a scan yesterday - i tell her they couldn't tell abbies position.

she then tells me I'm not in labour (erm i never said i was)

she tells me the pain im having is not my kidneys.

im not registering cx on the trace.

and asks me again WHY im there v

I then read my notes on way home and it says 'self refered from home' !!! - the bloody GP sent me!!

She made me feel like an idiot, like i was making the pain up - if it werent my kidneys and no cx - then why is my back absoloutly killing me on both sides?!

Just felt really stupid for doing as i was told by GP!

[jojowest]

whats cx

[TheArmadillo]

I think its unfair to say all hospital treatment of women is shit.

I agree that some of it is appalling
Some of it is not so good
Some of it is fine
Some of it is great

There is a huge variation in treatment - even within the same hospitals.

[Fernie3]

some hospitals (and some staff) are crap. yanbu.
In the past I have had to ask them to retest my bloodtype because they got it wrong (no idea how) so thankgod i didnt need any blood before that point. If my dad didnt work in heamatology (not in that hospital lol) and have an unhealthy interest in my blood test results then we would never have known and god knows what could have happened!

[Fernie3]

i meant to post a positive side but was over eager -
some are not like the consultant who sat with me for nearly an hour when i was ill and just chatted. not many consultants do that.

[Mooghill]

True, I had a midwife who sat up all night and held my hand when I lost my son at 5 1/2 months. She was an angel.

But still, when have a bad experience can be really upsetting. x

Guess depends on who you get and where you are x

[DuelingFanjo]

TotorosOcarina, I saw your previous thread. Did you get antibiotics?

[libelulle]

Yanbu. When it's bad, it's very bad- but equally, when it's good, it's very very good! When I was stuck on my back for 8 days in the labour ward before going into prem labour last summer, one angel midwife came in twice on her days off to chat and see how I was doing. On the other hand, I was almost railroaded into a csection in the middle of the night by a useless, patronising and unpleasant junior registrar who couldn't even be bothered to read my notes properly. Scary how much the luck of the draw intervenes- if I'd given birth under her tender mercies I doubt ds would have made it.

[bemybebe]

I guess I was unlucky. All my experiences with NHS hospitals were shit. The only great one - at 12 week scan with a wonderful sonographer, who was very patient, very informative and very friendly. I never had a real emergency though.

[JoInScotland]

I agree with Monkeyjamtart. My son was wedged in and not coming out any way except an emergency Caesarian, which unfortunately led to a massive hemorage. The anethesiologist worked on me his whole shift. I'm lucky to be alive, and so is my son, and it's thanks to the NHS. The midwives took such good care of us, and my partner. I could have developed PTSD or any other of a raft of problems after so much birth trauma, but we are planning to have more children - many women don't after my sort of experience. And yes, if this had happened in my native US we would be in horrible debt now.

[tigercametotea]

I think you've just got a bad experience with that particular consultant. Hospital staff vary widely and not all of them treat pregnant women badly. But I see your point about homebirths being more pleasant than hospital births in general :) I've had 2 homebirths and 1 hospital birth too, and I will never want to go to a hospital to give birth again!

[libelulle]

I think the point about emergency care is a good one. I saw a senior registrar who was pretty dismissive about various concerns of mine, but the same woman was super supportive a week later when I was blue-lighted in. I also suddenly appreciated why I'd sometimes waited hours and hours to see a doctor in the assessment unit in the past- if you are in a life-threatening situation then you suddenly seemingly have every doctor in the ward at your bedside within seconds. The Nhs does 'urgent' amazingly well as a rule; it is routine care that is more hit and miss.

[Celibin]

We had a terrible time with NHS and womens's things (same hospital) My friend had inexplicable bleeding and was scared as being abroad for 3 years where do not have smear testsetc She was told she had tried to perform a DIY abortion! Friend v angry as not having sexual relations Turned out cancer and v serious as cannot have children Glad to be alive My friend works in medical profession.
Relative had bad birth cord round neck etc Paediatrician calledtwice : did nithing not even put in SBU . Medically qual relative arrived in nick of time: baby just about gone Rushed dow corridor to nursing station and resusitated. Weeks in SBu in another hospital Lost kidney. Mother thenhas post-natal bleeding. Nightmare. Nearly lost both of them.Original hospital found to be negligent by second hospital . He can sue for lost kidney as adult if he wishes

[microserf]

i agree with TheArmadillo. My NHS consultant, c section team and antenatal midwives were awesome. The hospital midwives were a mix of fantastically good, total bitches and relative incompetents. Post natal was a complete nightmare, ended up going private post c section due to inadequate care.

OP, it is too sweeping a statement but i know where you are coming from

[BoffinMum]

No great NHS experiences to report here. Just care that was at best indifferent and at worst potentially dangerous. Same in private sector. The reality is pg women are treated like gestating idiot ruminants everywhere.