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 agree with Juliet.
Others having had worse experiences and you having a healthy child does not diminish the issues you wish to complain about. In fact, highlighting these these things by complaining is good for everyone.

Poor quality maternity care masked by the excuse of “we’re busy” is my experience. And so many others’ experience.
Op , sue if you have the energy. I didn’t. Shit care broke me and picking up the pieces with a newborn was the hardest thing I have ever had to do.
Slavishly worshipping the NHS is no longer the path I follow.

I'm confused about the pethidine. I thought it could give baby severe breathing problems if given too soon (less than 1.5 hours) before birth & it should have been obvious to MWs that OP was so far gone that baby would be affected by the pethidine. Obviously I'm glad to hear the baby came before the pethidine took effect.

Maybe I'm wrong about pethidine?

I am absolutely staggered by some of these responses. I cannot believe that women are speaking to a traumatised woman like this. It's disgraceful. Clearly many here do not understand how birth trauma works - it's not 0/10 trauma for an easy Labour and 10/10 trauma for the worst labour imaginable. I work with women who've recently used the local maternity services as part of a project to improve them, and there are women who've had textbook, "perfect" labours and are still deeply traumatised, and women who've had the worst experiences imaginable who at present feel no trauma. Having said that, it can take a long time to realise how badly affected you are, especially when you're caring for one or more babies.

Suing is actually a very good way of making an NHS trust face up to the failings in their policies and pathways and make changes. Sometimes there need to be financial consequences for these crucial changes to be made. However in this case I think it's unlikely you'd be successful, and may be too late anyway.

There are things I think you should absolutely do:

1. Ask for a birth debrief. The midwives who do these are usually senior and very empathetic and can give you as much detail as you want from your notes, and talk through how it makes you feel.

2. Make a formal complaint via PALS. You can also request a copy of your notes so you can write your complaint, if that wouldn't be too traumatic for you.

3. There are very effective treatments for trauma now. A midwife in my area is training in something called the Rewind technique which is supposed to be excellent, and once she's done it will be available to patients on the NHS. There's also EMDT which may be available on the NHS or can be accessed privately (doesn't take many sessions). Many areas also have specialist maternity counsellors - they deal with birth trauma and tokophobia. I'm sure that with a combination of these things it would really help you to consider another pregnancy.

4. regarding another pregnancy, we are hoping to trial a postnatal and pre-conception clinic in our area for various issues including birth trauma, as we know that trauma prevents many women from getting pregnant again which is completely wrong. Although they're not funded for this, there are obstetricians that will see traumatised patients in their general gynae clinic to talk about options for their next pregnancy / delivery. You might want to think about a home birth / water birth. The midwives who deal with home births are very passionate about their job. You know that you're capable of delivering a baby without pain relief and without needing medical interventions, so you could possibly do this again outside a hospital setting which you may find less traumatic.

5. You need to ask your gp to refer you to have the repair on your labia done, this should absolutely be covered and should be a relatively minor procedure under general and as a daycase. I can understand if you want to deal with the trauma first but you may have a bit of a wait anyway.

I just want you to know you're not alone. Doctors missed something on my scans, and when I felt very unwell randomly one night, my lovely midwife encouraged me to go in to get checked out - there was no reason to think anything was really wrong I just felt very wrong. Turns out one of my twins wasn't moving - the staff worked efficiently but I had a horrific time with the spinal (took 7 attempts and 40 mins while two nurses pinned monitors to my stomach to make sure his heart was still beating). When they were born he wasn't breathing for a while and they rushed both babies away before I could see them and I had to wait 7-8 hours and they told me nothing. I was convinced he had died and no one would tell me. He fortunately survived but was very unwell and I don't think I'll ever forget lying in that room, listening to women give birth, with my placentas in a bag on the end of the bed (they had to test them due to his condition) thinking my baby was gone. It was the worst day of my life, which it shouldn't be, but there we are. The worst part for me is that it was avoidable - he had been resuscitated and was stable although very unwell. They could have just told me that and I could have relaxed. Like you, a few small changes would have made a huge difference to how I felt about it all and it absolutely does matter. I could never do it again at this present time but I am soon to be having some treatment and will see how I feel.

I'm not sure whereabouts you live - if you're in dorset I can help put you in touch with the right people. If you're elsewhere, I can find contacts for you who can help.

Please don't let anyone make you feel bad for how you feel. It's not your fault, and you don't get to decide how traumatised you are by something. Just because people have been through "worse" doesn't affect how traumatised you are. You don't have to lose your child to be traumatised by your birth. You should not just "count yourself lucky" - you're not lucky, you're traumatised for avoidable reasons.

Sending lots of hugs to you. Please seek out some help for what happened. There are options for future pregnancies (doulas, independent midwives, NHS home birth, NHS midwife led unit, even an elective section if you would want that) that can be nothing like this and where you can feel calmer and supported. Hang in there x

I'm sorry you had such a negative birth experience , but unfortunately it does not fill the criteria to be able to 'sue'....you have also missed the time period in which to bring a claim
Also to go privately will cost 1000's!
It may help to have some counselling and I would speak to the head of midwifery at the hospital for closure but after 4 yrs it would be difficult to question what happened
Midwifes are leaving the profession in droves ( along with other nurses) and the number of senior qualified nurses retiring has created the perfect storm and fear nurses are allowed to train due to funding cutbacks and the abolishment of the bursary
Successive governments and policy makers have known about this for over a decade yet have done nothing and investment in NHS (midwifery ) has been appalling
Rather than blame an individual midwife, we need to complain about the whole system

Stopyourhavering, she can do both. Individuals are accountable and should be.

And yes we, are lucky to have the NHS but that does not mean we should accept substandard care and be afraid to speak out or even take legal action when necessary. The service must be informed about its failings and pushed to make changes where it puts people's physical and mental health at risk. It's not free - we pay for it. People need to stop just putting up with being treated appallingly in some cases. There are huge numbers of women who have amazing birth experiences on the NHS and many more who could have the same if small things were changed, but that will only happen if people speak out. I took a job that's trying to facilitate this as I feel so passionately about it. It's so important.

It's absolutely not too late to get a debrief. Many women can't face it for years and years afterwards, much longer than you. Your notes are still there.

I had a badly stitched episiotomy which prevented me from having sex for 6 years.

I personally think hospitals are not ideal places to give birth unless you have complications and so I’ve tried (unsuccessfully) to have two home births.

I would not sue because the NHS is on its knees already not to mention staff leaving in droves. Imagine what would happen if it didn’t exist at all?

I also would not go to a private hospital because often they don’t have the most specialist consultants should something go wrong.

If I were in your shoes I would ask for a home birth and ask for midwives to attend you at home.

I had a horrific time with my first. I was terrified of giving birth again and when I got pregnant with my 2nd I told my midwife everything and she referred me to a counsellor who specialised in birth trauma. I ended up having the perfect labour and birth with my second and then went on to have another too! (Although almost got sent home in full blown labour with 3rd as I was in labour only 42minutes - also no time for pain killers and also tore. I don’t blame the midwives at all though, and certainly wouldn’t consider suing the Nhs!)

In my health board you have a three year limit for complaints so you may not even be able to complain.

YANBU for wanting to make a complaint and to want assurances about treatment in future pregnancies as your experience was completely unacceptable. I think PALS at the hospital may be the first step. Probably also GP as you could get counselling to help you deal with the trauma of your first birth as I think you may well have PTSD.

As far as suing, that would appear to be a non starter as you didn’t suffer financial loss from this experience. You only get financial compensation for financial loss. I don’t think from your OP that this is really what you want. It sounds like you want reassurances that changes have been made so a complaint to PALS would seem to be the route to what you need.

Sorry you had this awful experience, OP, and I hope you get the reassurance you need

Totally unreasonable to sue to the NHS for this. Yes we pay in our taxes but this is minimal compared to what you'd pay for private health care.

Sadly the public expectations of the NHS is so high and they are very busy and cannot always meet your high expectations.

If you want hotel treatment then pay privately yourself don't take more more money from our already overstretched NHS.

Sorry not RTFT but my birth experience with DD1 was very similar to yours OP. Quickly progressing labour and very strong contractions. Midwives kept insisting I had only recently been examined about an hour earlier so was only 3cm and left me for that hour in the assessment room with no midwife or pain relief even though I was writhing in pain nearly the whole time and being sick, and begging for pain relief. They eventually agreed after an hour to move me to the delivery room (only because I was a 45 minute drive from home and did at least concede that by the time I got home if they sent me home I'd probably be 4cm anyway which was their 'threshold' for going to the delivery room, and so would only end up coming straight back again). Only after about 5 minutes after arriving in the delivery room did the new midwife spot that DD1's head was nearly out. My waters hadn't even gone by that point so she quickly broke them and DD1 was born a couple of minutes later. I had no pain relief at all except the 2 paracetamol which I'd taken at home before coming into hospital (and often quick labours have particularly strong contractions). I didn't feel listened to from the moment I arrived in hospital and was treated like I had no idea what I was talking about. People have told me repeatedly how 'lucky' I was to have had a quick labour, but it wasn't all that great!

Cut back to DD2's labour last year and because of my experience with DD1 I chose to go to a smaller midwifery led unit which had a much better reputation. Unfortunately due to a queried infection after my waters broke (I had a high temp - turned out to be a viral thing) I was transferred to the same unit I gave birth to DD1 in. By this point my waters had gone but contractions hadn't started yet so was sent to the antenatal assessment ward. I had written a very clear birth plan saying I progress very quickly after I've reached 3-4cm, and felt I wasn't listened to during DD1's birth. I also told the midwife on the antenatal ward that I progress quickly. Anyway, contractions started and eventually I hit about 3cm. Midwife said she'd 'be back later' to see how I was getting on. Similar story - writhing in pain, yet kept being told I was only in 'early labour'. I kept asking for pain relief and to be re-examined but was told 'someone will be along in a bit once they've finished with another patient'. Was told I couldn't had gas and air yet as was only in early labour. Also because I was in the antenatal ward it was full of other women and it was visiting hour so there was a constant stream of people walking past my bed seeing me at my most undignified, distressed self. Eventually I turned to DH and said 'I need to push'. He literally had to dash and grab a midwife who came back, pushed an emergency call button to get a delivery pack, and I ended up giving birth to her on the antenatal ward, and again no-one had listened to me the whole time.

I have no plans to have a 3rd DC, but if I ever did, I've told DH I'd never go back to that hospital and would rather give birth at home.

I’m no expert but would something like this count as a personal injury claim? If so as it was 4 years ago I don’t think you can sue regardless of the merits of doing so - I think you are out of time.

Fitbitbore, the OP.is not exactly complaining about lack.of "hotel treatment"

She received severely lacking basic care

Asking for a debrief and putting in a complaint would be reasonable.

Suing wouldn't be.

It's all well and good people saying they are shocked at the responses but the OP essentially says I had a poor birth experience, i was 3cm dilated ajd contracting every 6 minutes and am annoyed that I was sent home. Really the midwives should have been psychic and known that my labour was going to magically speed up. The entire thing was quire traumatic and there's some damage to my labia, but notjing unusual for birth. It was 4 years ago ajd i've not raised any issues in that time. However, I'm thinking of having anotjer baby and want to go private for it because of my experience. The thing is to get a private birth I'd probably need to sue the NHS 4 years after the event to fund my private healthcare.
It's not difficult to see why people have responded like they have.

It sounds like it was a scary experienve and tje OP is right to seek answers, but not to explore sueing because they want thr cash for a private delivery next time

I think from reading all the responses given here there is a recurrent theme and that it that hospitals and staff seem ill equipped to deal with rapid labour and delivery or anything outside the “norm” for a FTM. My own labour with DD (second baby) was extremely quick and I was admitted at 3cm begrudgingly because of the pain I was in (I also refused to leave 😂), the midwife agreed to give me pethadine (again after “discussion”). She came back 10 minutes later to a very panicked student midwife who had caught my DD as she seemingly shot into the world! I had been in latent labour for over two weeks and all my notes had said to prepare for a quick delivery (DS was only a couple of hours for a first time baby) but it happened so quickly I hadn’t even been booked in or my notes opened, it was less than 30 minutes from arriving at the hospital - I too suffered some awful tears and a huge haemorrhage however this apparently can happen following quick delivery and I was just pleased at the staff that were immediately on hand to help! It may well be worth looking into counselling but as others have said, you now know what your bod is capable of and next time you may feel more confident in requesting the treatment you know you require!

I don't think legal action is thing to do but understand you need reassurance that other people won't have this happen again. Contact PALS at the hospital you gave birth at. They can give you support and advice about making a complaint and the correct process in which to do so. Hopefully this will give you answers and closure.

I think you need to make a complaint as a minimum .

Also look into EMDR treatment as you could have PTSD.

I had a situation where I could have sued but I decided not to as my child lived and the nhs is broke.

I was left needing surgery, treated appallingly, had subsequent problems at each birth I had after, can't have more children and nearly died along with my baby at the last birth as a direct result.

But the nhs is skint and my baby and I are alive

I can’t stand the argument that ‘you’ve got a healthy baby, move on’

But what about the broken mother? Psychologically and physically.

I wouldn’t sue, but I would ask questions and see if they will put something in place to stop it happening again.

Amongst my friends I’m yet to find a positive birth story at our local hospital. Seems they never learn.

Fitbitbore, do tell us precisely where OP says she expected hotel treatment. You do realise that what happened was potentially extremely dangerous both for OP and her child, don't you? It's hardly unreasonable to expect the NHS to offer the care our taxes pay for.

I wouldn't sue as the NHS has no money but I would want answers and reassurances that it wouldn't happen again.

My labour was horrendous. I had had major stomach surgery at 20 weeks pregnant to remove rumours. I had pre eclampsia and something showing as wrong with baby and baby was back to back also.
They kept saying if I still had as high protein in my urine the next day they would induce and then sending me home. I lived no where near the hospital and had no car and it was an utter nightmare.

Eventually I kicked off and they kept me in to be induced. Day midwife was amazing but when she went home at 6pm I was left alone for ages and then left with a first time on the ward student midwife (bearing in mind I had complications!) While the students and HCA were run off their feet I could hear the midwifes sat chatting in the office for longer than a break period.

I kept telling her I needed to push, she kept telling me I couldn't possibly need to yet despite having what they call jungle juice to speed up contractions.

End result was DC1 was stuck (back to back) and in distress, rushed to theatre for an emergency c section but they managed to get dc out at last minute by vontouse but not before I had torn very badly and damaged my bladder and bowel and lost a lot of blood.

Ended up with surgeon called out of bed to come and do emergency surgery and on blood transfusions which saved my life. Even then the midwifes were laughing and joking and the surgeon absolutely lost it and bollocked them telling them they were lucky they had an alive Mum and baby and it wasn't a laughing matter.
I ended up in hospital for two weeks. Almost lost dc again when it became apparent dc was really poorly with Jaundice and they wouldn't listen. Luckily I had a friend who worked in a senior position on the children's ward who threatened to come and take baby and remove dc to the nearby children's hospital and make a full report on them as to why she had had to do it otherwise dc would probably be dead.

I can’t see what you could claim for. I also don’t really see what you would complain about. You had a precipitous labour. It happens. It was too swift to monitor and getting pain relief is more important if the women isn’t coping. 4 minutes to get pain relief isn’t bad.
Most women’s external genitalia change after birth. Its normal.

It might help to have someone go through your notes and discuss them to help you understand how and why decisions were made. Ask about it through PALS.