To sue the NHS over my birthing experience

[boomitscountginula]

Now before I get flamed to death. I do appreciate my birth story isn't as bad as some but, I now refuse to have another baby unless I can get assurances that this won't happen again, and the only way I can do so is to go private, I think.? It was traumatic to me.

I had a quite easy birth, in terms of how long it took "officially" but I wasn't listened to and have a couple of long lasting injuries I think could of been prevented if they believed I was in labour to begin with.

My birth story: I woke up the day after my due day and had lost my plug over night. Went for a stretch and sweep at lunch, (planned as it was my first) with my midwife said I was 3cm already.

Fabulous, no pain at the minute, now 3cm easy birth.. so I thought.

Went home had a nap, woke up with contractions near tea time. By 9pm they where regularly 6 minutes apart so rang the maternity ward, had a phone assessment and went in.

Got into maternity triage, in absolute agony, had a physical exam and the triage said:

"Your only 3 cm, you need to come home and come back."

I said well as you can see, I am contacting every 6 minutes and less now, the pain is overwhelming and I feel like I need to push.

She tutted and said in all her experience she had never been wrong and I had hours to go, so needed to go home.

I was in bits at this news and crumbled. I never wanted an epidural and chose pethidine (sic) and gas and air. So agreed I would go home but I needed some kind of pain killer, that I could have with my chosen birth plan. I really put my foot down and said I will go home but only if I can get a pain killer stronger that the 2 paracetamol I had taken already.

She said she would find a doctor, but never came back.

Meanwhile I then go into the advanced stages of Labour. Bare in mind I had two paracetamol and my waters haven't broken. It's like trying to birth a gym ball.

I am literally screaming in pain in a side room in maternity triage, pushing and effectively giving birth myself. My partner and my mum (both birth partners) took it in turns to find anyone. But no one came for 45 minutes.

After 45 minutes a junior midwife came in and said "oh my god your in labour".

Me and her literally ran to the deliver ward, where I was given gas and air.

I took a massive gulp of it, and was told off, because I should only take it when I am in pain and contracting..... never mind the two hours I have just been in hospital alone labouring, without a monitor on my baby or any pain relief.

I am still not hooked up to monitor, the only medical intervention is gas and air right now. My waters still haven't broken, 4 minutes later I was given the pethidine. 2 minutes after that I crown, baby in sack. Midwife broke the waters and my son was born. My official record shows that I was in labour for 9 minutes.

I had pain relief 4 minutes into my 9 minute birth and at no point was I on any kind of contraction monitoring machine. Nothing monitoring baby's heartbeat etc etc. I might as well have birthed in the woods.

I also split my right labia in two during the birth. The midwife didn't want to stitch it because it wasn't that bad.. yet I couldn't pee, unless in the bath for 3 weeks, and now that side is an inch longer than the other. Causing me, well you can imagine.

Start to finish I was treated like dirt, I was left labouring in a room alone, I was belittled and injured without proper treatment. And now I am afraid to be pregnant again.

I love the NHS, but they have let me down, massively. I am permanently injured (labia) and mentally scarred. But hate the idea of sueing the NHS on a theoretical level...

The NHS has no money because it's getting ripped off from inside its self. The same applies to the government.

The old 'keep your head down and dont say anything' response needs to be stopped.

op if your able to Id go the whole hog, until all women that have had substandard care start pushing back nothing is going to change

Christ. unmedicated birth might be what you want, but she didn't. Is that so hard to understand?

There’d be no NHS if we all sued over that, sorry.
Count yourself lucky it’s not 1917 or you don’t live in Nigeria

Congratulations on the baby have some counselling & move on

And let's not pretend you know anything about what someone else might be suffering from

No pretence necessary. Sheer logic tells us that my point is true.

There's some huge unkindness here. To the lady who said the op should be grateful because her own baby died whilst she has my deepest sympathy she has missed the point. My second baby died at 27 weeks due to a heart condition incompatible with life. That birth was of course traumatic but it was kindly managed and the trauma related to bereavement rather than an avoidable traumatic birth due to poor care as was the case with my first baby. More than 20 years on both births were traumatic the first more seriously so because it was avoidable with more professionalism.

OP I can completely, completel sympathise with how you feel.

I had an unqualified midwife who missed my sons heart rate was pathological for nearly an hour, then had a very agressive - sorry, ‘forceful’ - forceps birth that has left me with permanent internal trauma and an episiotomy that I’m waiting for corrective surgery on because the male reg kindly put in a ‘husband stitch’ which means it’s so tight I’m constantly uncomfortable and sex has been off the table since my DS was born 15 months ago.

I am angry. Very, very angry. My husband was diagnosed with PTSD after the birth & struggled to engage with my son. I have been promised a c section if I ever had another baby (which I doubt), had an apology from the hospital, and I’m meeting with the head of midwifery at the university; they have already apologised to me. All in, they’ve admitted their mistakes and the injuries they caused. Even so, I’m not sure suing is right.

I’ve asked about it on this site before and people have broadly been supportive because I have followed the process - complain, meeting, clear link between negligence and ongoing injury. Even so, no matter how angry you are, that doesn’t make it the right thing to do. You need to be clear about why you would be doing it. I personally don’t think revenge is enough of a reason.

Whatever you decide I wish you healing. I think that’s what most of us are chasing. Only you can decide if suing will help with that.

Pragmatically speaking if every woman with a similar birth experience to you sued, the NHS would not survive that.

However, I know someone whose baby was left severely disabled due to negligence during birth. She should sue. Her DS is now a preschooler with a developmental age of 2 months. His birth injury was entirely preventable.

Your post touches on many big issues; birth and our expectations of it, female autonomy over our own bodies, the role of the NHS and what it should be 'for' in a radically different world to that in it was conceived. There are no easy answers to any of these and we don't appear to have an appropriate forum to discuss them as a society.

I don't know where to start with your case. You should definitely get a debrief. I would hope you would get an apology. And I hope that would make you feel better. For another birth, I'd explore very different options like a home birth and doula support.

For what it's worth, after a fairly shitty birth experience with DS, I want to explore the idea of a planned Caesarian for any future children. It's not ideal, but it's my way of asserting some control and I feel it would be a more positive experience than the one I had.

To all the people who say you have a healthy baby and that's all that matters- utter bollocks. It might be the most important thing but it's not all that matters.

On saying that though, I wouldn't sue. Have you had a debrief or made an official complaint?

Pretty typical experience with first on the nhs. I waited until I was in agony at home and then laboured another hour in the RECEPTION as there were no rooms. I was rushed up when I started grunting and pushing. Theres isn't enough time, space or resources.

I did however go to mlu and that was amazing. Straight into birth room as soon as I arrived and on the gas and air

I have sympathy, but your priority is to heal mentally and change the way you look backward and forward. Suing won't do that, counselling may, time may and a booked section too. I'm not sure what grounds you have for compensation.

This sounds so similar to my first labour in so many ways. I was examined, 3cm, told to come back when contractions were 2 mins apart. I was in utter agony, they gave me paracetamol and sent me home. Then refused to examine me again. 8 hours I went through feeling like I was actually dying. When the staff switchover happened the next morning they finally let me in and gave me pain relief. I was told by some midwife when I first went in that I was clearly exaggerating to seek drugs (!) and also told off for 'scaring' the people in the waiting room by 'pretending its worse than it is'. It was a horrendous experience overall. Though the team who looked after me when I finally was admitted were fantastic.

My second labour was a piece of piss.

I believe this is the case a lot. Where first labours are horrific and subsequent not so bad.

I don't seed what suing would achieve and I do not think you would be successful in suing. But please seek out the answers you deserve.

If you want another child but are scared the same thing will happen, maybe planning a section would be a good idea for you.

I do think you need to access counselling and have a debrief and them go through your notes with you. However it is common to tear in labour and monitoring isn’t always used. I have given birth twice and at no point was I strapped to a monitor. Was there a reason you expected to be? High risk or lack of movement etc.

In my debrief, which I didn’t have the courage to ask for until 3 years later, they admitted they were shit. It didn’t really help me.

You would be completely unreasonable to sue. You may have had cause for complaint but you would have needed to do so within 12 months of the birth. 4 years later you're unlikely to get anywhere. Request a debrief and a copy of your notes, and pursue some counselling.

Unreasonable to sue? Not your decision. Clearly not unreasonable. It may get the op nowhere but she would not be unreasonable.
And if shit care fucks things up for you, is that supposed to be shaken off after a year?

One can only hope and pray that black isn't a midwife.

Actually, for personal injury you have 3 years, and it is at the court's discretion to extend if they think you have a good enough reason.

If the OP feels that her care was negligent she is entirely within her rights to seek advice about it.

One can only hope and pray that black isn't a midwife

No just someone who nearly died, almost lost her child, and was left with a lifelong injury from a birth.
But thanks for your concern

@SecretSmellies - the regulations governing complaints about NHS services stipulate they must be made within 12 months of the complainant knowing about the issue, unless there are exceptional circumstances. Four years would be hard to justify as carrying out a fair investigation would be very difficult given staff will have moved on and likely not remember the incidents described. It sounds like OP had good grounds for complaint back then, but 4 years later... If it arrived on my desk I'd refuse it, offer a debrief as an alternative and direct her to the PHSO.

Given that many pp with medico legal knowledge have explained why she wouldn't have a case, I think encouraging op to sue is just as (if not more) unhelpful than people making comparisons between op birth experiences and their own objectively more traumatic experiences.

Op needs to use her time and energy in a way that is going to help her achieve her ultimate goal of having a 2nd child, an unsuccessful legal campaign is not going to do that.

Ery, that’s for the op to decide with legal advice from people who know her situation, not a bunch of randoms on MN. There are plenty on here who have advised against it, not from a legal point of view but from a “Sacred NHS” point of view. Which is how the NHS continues to get away with crappy maternity care.

Unreasonable to sue? Not your decision

OP literally asked us all if she would be unreasonable to sue. If you think its not ok to say yes, you would be unreasonable, you are very much in the wrong place.