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...

I'm sorry you had a bad experience and you could complain... but it was 4 years ago so I'm not sure what it would achieve.

You said you only have a cosmetic injury. That's not enough to sue and you have to prove the injury would not have occurred if the care had been different, which I don't think you could.

I had a bad experience too (3rd degree tear due to the midwives not realising my labour was progressing quickly, DS born 1.5 hours after getting to hospital) but going through the complaints process first.

Which is how the NHS continues to get away with crappy maternity care.

From personal experience, it is very much better than private care

that’s for the op to decide with legal advice from people who know her situation, not a bunch of randoms on MN.

OP asked for people's opinions. They have given them. It's kind if how discussion forums work.

HTH

Not suing the nhs because it has no money is a very crap answer tbh.

Because very simply, if when money 8smt involved, the need to actually take action and finally look after women properly jus t is t string enough.
If it was men giving birth, you wouldn’t see the level of shortages you see in maternity wards. And you wouldn’t see anyone not believing a woman saying she is labour. Actually they would be trusted to not make a fuss for nothing and they would be believed to be in pain/in labour/something isn’t going right.i have actually seen what has happened when someone is actually suing the nhs. This was a case when a baby died during birth.
TBH you need to be VERY strong to go through that. The nhs did absolutely everything to prove this wasn’t the case and belietled both the woman who gave birth and the MW involved. Somehow one expert who wasn’t there at the birth was enough to say that said baby couldn’t possibly have died during birth and there was no problem at all. Even though the hospital did actually agreed they did made some massive mistakes.
Because the most important thing was the avoid paying anyth8ng at all. Never mind the fact it could have been used to review practices (that were at fault there). Or that a baby died in the process.

You're damn right Trafalgar. I've been going to my GP for the last year with recurrent severe pain in my legs, feet and hands. What do I get? Antidepressants.

My husband goes with a problem with his knee, one time - he's booked in for physio and an X-ray asap.

Same doctor.

At the time you were examined you were 3cm. You wouldn't have a case on that because 3cm is not active labour. it is if the baby is back to back.
plus the op asked for pain relief. to refuse that request is negligent

Nice guidelines don't make any differentiation between start of active labour for a back to back baby so I don't know why people are saying 3cm is active labour if back to back. It isn't. Cervical dilation may be slower with an OP baby but the cervix still works in the same way.

The OP wasn't refused pain relief, she says the midwife went to find a doctor and didn't come back. Another midwife came 45 mins later and took her to labour ward. A midwife can't give pain relief to a woman deemed not to be in active labour apart from paracetamol, it needs prescribing by a doctor. Believe me it is not unusual to not be able to get a doctor to write a prescription for pain relief for a couple of hours. 45 mins is nothing,

I'm not saying that's ok.....it isn't but it is the reality of maternity units. There will often be 1x reg and 1x shop on for maternity and gynae. So labour ward, assessment unit, gynae ward, and post natal and antenatal inpatient wards. If they're tied up in theatre for a while there's nobody to come. When they come out of theatre each will have a lengthy list of women to see, some are sick and need reviewing, some need a plan of care, some want discharging, some need their meds altering, etc. It is not negligent to not have received pain killers for 45 mins, it's shit, but not negligent.

Best thing OP can do is ask her GP for a gynae referral to see about having her labia repaired. She meets criteria for this to be done on the NHS as it rubs and gets sore.

I think you should be speak to your GP about maybe getting some counselling.

It sounds horrific but unfortunately I've heard worse just from RL family and friends.

Maternity care seems to have gone to shit. I still feel "shell shocked" off having DS and that was 17 weeks ago. I don't think I'm being a drama queen, we both needed resuscitating and he's ended up needing oxygen from being premature which could of been avoided.

Same ward a women had her 28 week baby down the toilet because the staff didn't believe she was in labour. I never saw her again and don't know if the baby was ok

I'm not trying to play top trumps just trying to show that there seems to be more stories of traumatic births then good or even "just" bad lately.

If it was men giving birth, you wouldn’t see the level of shortages you see in maternity wards. And you wouldn’t see anyone not believing a woman saying she is labour. Actually they would be trusted to not make a fuss for nothing and they would be believed to be in pain/in labour/something isn’t going right.

Men are statistically less likely to consult a dr, far more likely to play down symptoms,and believe me I have had a massive amount of negligence claims where men have been misdiagnosed or had treatment delays. So lets not start that. It isnt what the thread is about.

Im sorry you had such a rough experience, I too had a quick labour with no pain relief (partly because I here was no time, partly it wasn't in my mind to ask for it) after been sent home as I was only 2cm. I have no complaints however about my care but if I did I would need to take it further however if seem from above that that time has passed.

Why do you feel your baby needed monitoring? Had you had problems during your pregnancy? To my knowledge there is no need to be hooked up to baby monitoring machines during labour (especially a short, standard one).

I think you are getting a bit of a rough ride here. It’s for you to say how your experience affected you - and I am very sorry it has affected you so badly. I can understand why you are so scared.
Personally I wouldn’t even consider suing the NHS (and I suspect you have no claim), but I would complain. I don’t know if your hospital has this service but mine will allow you, where you have had a traumatic birth, to go back and speak to a consultant who will talk you through what happened and why. It may give you some reassurance - which I hope might be more helpful than launching into stressful litigation. Suing them is not going to solve how you feel now.
Good luck.

Sometimes I am embarrassed to be a midwife. But I can see both sides of this. Labour is unpredictable and no midwife wants to send a woman to birth alone.

You should have been listened to, you should have felt supported. You should have access to pain relief when you needed it (although as above it’s not always that simple and I have never met a midwife who has withheld pain relief). It’s okay to feel as you do, be kind you yourself. Labour is hard and shocking and often it is the communication from staff which traumatises women. I am sorry you experienced that.

Women can be unkind to women. Just take a look right here.

I had a very traumatic birth with my first, thanks to a cascade of intervention and long lasting injuries - which thankfully now are healed. I felt very angry for 4 years and used to relive the experience over and over.
We decided to have another as I didn't want my son to be an only child. I had meetings with different consultants and we went through everything that went wrong and how to avoid it the second time round. The second birth was completely different it was amazing and it has cancelled out all the negativity of the first birth.
Normally with second babies they know Labour is quicker and they listen to you more, as they trust that you know your body as you've done it before.

Thank you for your post, sunshine. Based on my personal experience, I dislike all midwives intensely. You have redressed the balance a tiny bit for me.

To be fair, in my experience if someone says their baby is coming they are rarely wrong.

Funnily enough my care improved significantly when I put "litigator" in the box for partner's occupation. Before DS1 was born i just put lawyer.

sunshine interesting comment about second time mother's knowing their bodies. I wasn't believed the third time either. Although the care was 1000 times better. I just limber up and then go from 1/2 cm to fully dilated fast.

I think what's missing actually is respect for the woman. It's awfully sad. The only time I've ever been spoken to like shit and as though I might have limited intelligence is by midwives, HV's and nurses.

“The only time I've ever been spoken to like shit and as though I might have limited intelligence is by midwives, HV's and nurses.”

Me too

It's precisely why I no longer do first name terms with hcps. It's Mrs Sparkles. Because funnily enough I'm the customer and now I'm middle aged I no longer tolerate behaviour that's reductive.

Oh raindrops. That’s so sad. I am sorry.

I can’t improve everyone’s care and the attitudes of all midwives. But I do my best for the families I care for.

Sorry for your experiances.

Get some answers yes

But sue - absolutely not. You sueing the NHS will stop them spending money on treatment

Or it will force them to put their acts together to do the same things to countless women afterwards.

Sometimes, the only way to see this change is attack where it hurts.
And with the nhs, what hurts is money....

I wouldn't and I have grounds.

My DS is alive thanks to neonatal, as is DD2 who's was born at 30 weeks. DD1 had appendicitis last year, they are all here thanks to the NHS.

I've lost a baby at a day old, it was shit. I wouldn't want anyone to go what I through through lack of resources or staff. The more money the NHS has the more people it can help.

So sorry for your bad experience, OP. No lawyer would take on your case, unfortunately, as your injuries need to be severe to have a chance of winning.

Birth plans annoy me. It's not the NHS's job to pander to someone's desire to experience a medical event in a particular way. It's their job to ensure the baby arrives safely and the mother receives the care necessary for that event.

They didn’t offer birth plans at our hospital. Care was still shit by their own subsequent admission.

I really feel for you but there is no point suing the NHS it will be a long complicated and stressful process with little reward (if any). I feel your pain I had a substantial number of miscarriages before my daughter and one particularly traumatic miscarriage resulted in me suffering PTSD. I was assured from day one by my midwife that I would get a c-section due to my mental health issues. It was refused but working with the head person at my local
Hospital we put together a birth plan I was happy with. I was induced and when the on call midwife came to meet me to take me to Labour she informed me she had read my birth plan but it wasn’t “how she did births” I.e it was to be an active birth, I was not to be on a bed at any point and therefore wasn’t happening. I was on a bed the whole day, told off for going to the toilet and they refused to examine me as dd was coming out as there was no way I would be ready yet. Resulted in a tear, losing 2.2litres of blood and serious flashbacks and mental health issues after. Get some counselling and do what you need to do to move on. A court case will only result in You losing more of your life to this.

Why sue them though ? Get a debrief but what will the money change ?

Childbirth can be savage and no one earns up

Heal up