Mayday experience Dec 08.
I cannot fault the staff on labour ward, I was looked after really well by a lovely midwife called Deborah. Unfortunately, I had to have an emercency C-section as baby was in distress etc etc. Again, I cannot fault the surgical team that carried out the operation, they were professional and caring.
The problems started when I was transferred to Mary ward. Here, I found most of the staff to be lazy, incompetant and rude. Examples:
Some refused to even speak to me when I asked them to pass me my baby (spinal block meant I couldn't move). very distressing after a long labour and major surgery.
When i was having trouble getting off the bed the day after the section, a sister pulled me up by my arms, making me scream with pain. She just said "I told you that you should do it yourself".
One senior midwife tried to give my drugs to the person in the next bed. When i complained to my doctor the next day, she told me to take it up with the midwife in charge (the one in question!).
When the meal trolley comes round you are expected to go and get your food. So if you can't walk because of the spinal block, you go hungry (luckily my family were there to get me something to eat).
If you need to go to the loo the staff will not watch your baby, you are expected to leave baby at your bed (in a room full of strangers and their visitors, which goes against every new mother's instincts). I found this particularly upsetting.
I had to ask 3 times to get my bed linen changed as it was blood stained after the birth (I wanted to prevent infection even if they didn't).
There are loads more things, like the midwife who came round at 2am with her phone radio on, and the healthcare assisstant who accused me of stealing a bottle of milk at 3.30am...
My baby is now 6 months old and I am still struggling to get my head around the attitude of the staff on Mary ward. However, since this is my first baby, I have nothing to compare it to. But I would never go back there again.