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...

Torn labia are a common birth injury, how do you think being taken to labour ward sooner would have prevented that? I could understand your anger if you'd had a 3rd or 4th degree tear, but I'm not sure torn labia can be prevented unless they do an episiotomy (which brings its own set of problems). Most women I know have cosmetic injuries from birth even those who had long slow labours and ample pain relief.

I think you would be best focusing on your new baby and seeking good treatment/support for PND, rather than obsessing over the birth. Compensation is usually granted when you have a life changing injury that affects your ability to work, to compensate for loss of earnings.

@OneStepSideways this thread is over a year old and the OPs DC was already 4 at the time.

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Personally I think you are being very unreasonable to sue. Complain if it helps you feel better.

I’m sorry you had a bad experience OP.

I’m a midwife and I’ll address a few points in your post:

• The midwife who triaged you made a sensible decision based on the information infront of her. At 3cm dilated and contracting every 6 minutes, you were not in what we would call ‘established labour’ and for a first time mum, it can take hours, if not days from this point, for labour to become established. Women tend to labour better in their own environments and there is a real lack of space for women in these early stages to be kept on the maternity wards, there is also a risk that your labour could be unnecessarily medicalised or interfered withi you are kept in the hospital. It may have been a good idea to ask you to go for a walk and come back if things became more regular, your waters broke or the pain was worse but some hospitals don’t like the ‘go for a walk’ option as it isn’t a proper plan and leaves them on shaky ground as you should either be admitted or not. It may have been appropriate to discuss pethadine at this stage but I suspect that the antenatal ward was probably very busy and they may not have had room to facilitate this. The triage midwife’s attitude does seem to leave a little to be desrired (if as stated) and she should have been able to get some codeine prescribed for you but again, unfortunately all signs point to it being a very busy shift.

• You should certainly be apologised to that no one came for 45 minutes. Like I have said, all signs do point to it having been a particularly busy shift. The trust would be able to access documents to confirm this. It would be awful to think that there were midwives sitting in the office ignoring you.

• Telling you how to use gas and air correctly is not unreasonable.

• You would not need to be monitored by a CTG machine unless you had risk factors which made this appropriate. Did they listen to the baby’s heart with a Doppler?

• If you felt like you needed to push, I would have re-examined you before giving pethadine as it is unlikely to be effective. It can also make babies sleepy and cause respiratory depression if given within a couple of hours before birth, although you delivered so soon after that this would be unlikely as it wouldn’t have had time to cross the placenta. However, I can understand how, working on the information available previously, with you having been 3cm not long before and it being your first baby, they may have assumed you were less far along.

• You seem upset that you were crowning with your waters still intact? This is normal and healthy. Babies can be born in their amniotic sack. The midwife likely broke your waters to see if it would help you to deliver more quickly due to you being in so much pain.

• Tearing during labour is normal as is some degree of cosmetic damage and is unlikely to have been prevented by any different care plan. Without seeing the tear and the documentation of the rationale for not suturing it, I have no idea if this is the right decision. This is something you should explore with a midwife/consultant at the hospital. If inappropriately left unsutured you may be able to sue for the cost of cosmetic repair but I am not an expert in legal matters.

Your labour sounds like it was traumatic mostly due to the speed at which things happened. I think it is definitely worth exploring this and looking at your notes with a birth reflections midwife or consultant. I would reccomend contacting the head of midwifery and explaining your concerns and asking for a debriefing session. You can make a decision about whether you wish to take legal action from there.

OneStepSideways I quote "I think you would be best focusing on your new baby and seeking good treatment/support for PND, rather than obsessing over the birth. Compensation is usually granted when you have a life changing injury that affects your ability to work, to compensate for loss of earnings".

What a disrespectful comment to make. I'm sure the lady is focussing on the baby but this DOES NOT take away the trauma she has to live with for the rest of her life due to inadequate care.
Speaking form experience, I would make a complaint to the hospital via the patient experience team. Listen to what they say but be prepared that the stick together like glue and will not admit liability. Get in touch with somewhere like ICA who are the independent regulator for nhs complaints. They will give you an advocate and tell you what you can do. I've had a formal complaint and am waiting for the official written response before taking it to the parliamentary ombudsman. I don't need the money, I'm not looking to sue but I would like to see those who are responsible reprimanded for their ineptness. I don't think the majority of the staff working at that hospital should be in jobs.
I'm doing this to stop it happening to anyone else. My life will never be the same again because of them and I believe I have the right to make sure it doesn't continue to happen.
You can see who are the midwives on this thread just by the condescending comments they make and how they always feel the need to have a back up excuse in place.

Hi OP I had a very similar experience to you. Was told when I arrived at hospital to pull myself together and as I was being sick from the pain and vomited the paracetamol they gave me they shut the curtain on me and told me to calm down as I would frighten the other mums in triage. I was sent home and gave birth and hour and a half later terrified and ill in my bathroom.
The same happened with DD2 in that I didn't dilate until right at the end and went through all the pain and contractions without ever dilating. This time however as I'd given birth before I was absolutely adamant I wasn't going home. They again didn't believe that I was in labour but in fairness to them they gave me gas and air and an epidural right at the very end as I started to push. I tore with both children although I was in hospital for one.
I can't promise that you won't be treated badly again but what I would say is that you've experienced it before which makes it easier to stand up for yourself. DD1's birth did leave me traumatised for awhile but she was born healthy so I didn't pursue although my care was terrible. Had the outcome been worse then I probably would. It's very hard when it doesn't go to plan so I completely understand where you're coming from. Maybe some counselling would help?

I'm sure I heard they have insurance in the event they get sued. Maybe you could sue if you want compensation e.g. to pay for some kind of rectification surgery?I have no idea but worth a complaint and legal enquiry to find out but beware that there might be time limits.

The midwives didn't listen to me and failed to spot problems and as a result my child wasnt alive when born and is at risk of brain damage. I was told at the debrief they wouldn't have done anything differently but im not stupid and also a consultant friend told me this was rubbish and what happened to me was totally avoidable. I haven't bothered complaining as they will never admit liability but also haven't ruled out legal action in the future.

From the outside there appears to be no accountability for cases like ours. I honestly believe some midwives aren't fit to practice but nothing is done about this. No wonder the UK has such high levels of still births etc for a first world country.

What do you mean by 'sue'? You want some cash to make you feel better?

Sounds like OP is at risk of precipitous labour (super fast). A lot of women claim this is especially difficult (overwhelming). There are probably strategies you can research to make it feel less out of control.

Oh Poo. ZOMBIE ZOMBIE