Hi there,
After reading all the comments during my pregnancy, and finally having my baby at UCLH, I really have a need to chip in with my experience.
From the beginning itself, as many have mentioned before, I didn’t feel supported at all. Every time different midwife, different doctor, after the first trimester I was seen on approximately 2 months, which was extremely frustrating for me resulting in me booking private appointments constantly (I know I had a healthy and straightforward pregnancy, but it is my first child and I wanted to make sure everything was progressing properly).
However, let’s focus on the experience with the labour itself.
My contractions started on a Saturday evening, and I came to the hospital on Sunday 6:45am. After 30min of waiting at the reception, they put me on that firm examination bed for CTG (where my water broke as well), and left me there till 2:30pm (the only reason why I was not sent back home, irrespective of string contractions, was because they noticed my baby had heart drops from time to time).
At 2:30, we finally get a room at the labour ward, where the support from each midwife was absolutely fantastic the entire time. Unfortunately, I definitely cannot say the same for the doctors.
I finally received epidural, and they confirm I was 1 finger open (which already shows slow progress keeping on mind when my contractions started).
3 hours later, with the help of oxitocin, I was 5 fingers open.
However, 6 hours after that - nothing, still 5 fingers open. They decided to increase oxitocin, however my blood pressure suddenly dropped as well as babies heart beat. Instead of immediately sending us for an emergency c-section (seeing I am not opening properly, they are draining both me and the baby), they decide to revert to the previous oxitocin level and check us again in 5 hours, even though I was telling them I’m definitely up for c section. In the meantime, I started developing resistance to epidural, meaning the window in which I needed a topup was shorter and shorter (at the beginning every 2:30 hours, coming down to only an hour and 15min).
5 hours later, I was still open 5 fingers and they confirm it will have to be an “emergency c-section”. My turn for the “emergency c-section” came 6 hours later. At that point, I was in hospital for around 29/30 hours, and my water had broken 27 hours before.
During the c-section I had lost 1.4l of blood, which they casually told me and my husband once we were back in the room (without any explanation around what went wrong), and refused for my husband to donate blood for me even though we are the same blood type.
(Also - I was forced to sign a paper accepting responsibility for the c-section and any outcome, as it was a selective c-section.
I didn’t have a choice - it would rather be that or I potentially die, so why are they making me sign the paper.)
To summarize labour ward - midwives are great, carrying and I can’t express enough how lovely they were. Each and one of them.
Doctors are absolutely terrible, detached from what they do, their patients. You don’t get a feeling “oh, we are trying, but we can’t manage it all”. NO, you get a feeling they do not care at all, and would do everything to postpone c-section.
That night, they moved me to the maternity ward which was hell of its own…
Even though I had a major surgery, lost so much blood, you get your baby next to you the entire time, there is no nursery - meaning (even though the idea is nice, you get to see your child the entire time, check if he/she is good, etc.), I had to feed, change and care for him the entire time. My baby did not want to sleep in the basket they provide, so I had to hold him in my arms the entire night, and make sure I don’t fall asleep and drop him. They only took him for 2 hours one night when I asked, but every other night they asked me why I was asking that, and whether I’m aware how busy they were. In 3 days how much I spent at maternity ward, I slept for 4 hours (because my husband could only stay 8am-8pm, and because of the noise, I couldn’t sleep during the day when he was there).
Even today, when I mention my experience there, I instantly start crying, and I’m convinced I have PTSD from it.
I deeply regret my decision to deliver my baby in London, give myself and my child in the hands of NHS.