Name and Shame - Edinburgh Royal

[highlander]

traumatic birth for mum and tot. Tot (obviously, doh!)not taking to boob for a few hours. Did they let her sleep it off? Nope. Did they shovel in formula? Yep. Was mum pumping? Yep. Was the colostrum saved for tot? Nope.

That's not the whole story, but tales like this make my boil

DD was born this July in Simpsons, and as we intended to have a home birth I went home the same day. 3 days later my DD didn't feed for 7 hours, completely freaking us out until after several frantic calls to the hospital we went in for some help. She'd dropped 11% of her birth weight because she wasn't latching properly when feeding.

First thing that happens when we're in is an auxiliary reaches up without even warning, never mind asking, and squeezes my tit really hard when she's trying to help me feed! The rest of my horrific 24 hours in the post natal ward are marked by being bullied by an awful nursery nurse who witters on about astrology to me for about an hour and then looks me straight in the face, with absolutely no irony, and says "What you need is a reality check"!

At this point I'm suffering terribly from baby blues, crying most of the time and sheer exhaustion is overwhelming me, but I'm desperate to keep on BF so I suffer the horrible savage gropings, total lack of privacy, character assasinations and constant interruptions from what little sleep I manage until eventually I couldn't take the stress any more and I decided to start using formula so I could go home. That night my DH feeds the baby and I get a blessed 5 hours sleep- hey presto my milk comes in.

I remember asking the nursery nurse over and over to show me how to help my daughter feed whilst I'm lying down so I could get some rest, but she's obsessed with showing me how to hand express which I explained I found painful and wouldn't be useful as I'd be pumping, which I found much easier, at home.

DD is now on mixed feeds, I BF as much as possible but my negative associations have made it very difficult.

diz - write to them and complain. Simply send a copy of what you have written here, with your details of time of birth. It's an outrageous story - they need to know it.

Can't believe that story about being shown a fucking video on breastfeeding!! (Well I can......)

I agree-why does the baby have to feed straight away?? Both mine were very slow and even about 12 hours (and a glucose test) I didn't feel any pressure to bottlefeed-not at all!!!

These places need to be contacted by the people who have had a bad time so that they can be put right. As a longterm NHS employee,I know that there is a big gap between theory and practice in many cases.

Oooh, can I join in - had my dd at Simpsons in March and the bf help was dire - a different person each time, they would keep grabbing my boob & shoving it in dd's mouth then when it didn't work and my nipples were shredded they got out the pump and syringes to feed. I'm sure that this bad start contributed to me failing to bf beyond 6 weeks after cracked nipples & thrush. Bllody place is just too busy. Also an auxillary told me to leave my baby to cry to teach her a lesson!!!!!! If I ever get pg again will have home birth, community midwives were much better than the hospital ones but the damage was done by the time I got home.

Feel better now. Bloody place. Wish I'd complained.

At least they gave you the choice of syringe or pump. When I was there it was boob or bottle. No choice. LIke you, however, my nipples were cracked and bleeding after just a few days. And the midwife told me about how she'd fed her daughter w/bloody nipples. Yeah, that sounded really appealing to me. NOT.

Nik..it's not too late.
That bitch of an auxiliary needs to be sacked for a start.
Go on,write it all down and send it.

Out of my NCT group of 6 only one managed to bf successfully and she was the only one who didn't deliver at Simpsons (had home birth).

Nik
If it weren't for this place, after my experience at Simpson's, I wouldn't have considered even trying to bf at all this time round . I was prepared to go in there w/a bag of sterlised bottles and a travel kettle to make up formula.

I should do. moondog - I'm sure i've still got the feedback form kicking around - not sure if it'd help though, I used to work at the place & kind of know the mentality unfortunately.

I had a similar experience to loads on here, baby put to boob as soon as she came out wouldn't latch, she slept for first 24 hours of her life despite me trying to latch her every 2 hours. Then she got juandice so back to hospital, was threatened with formula and tube feeding unless I could get her to drink EBM which I did. I was so bloody minded that I was breastfeeding her that I would offer boob before EBM at every feed until she got the hang of it.

Would also second every auxillary/midwife coming in every hour or so and stuffing boob into sleepy babies mouth

Does mears etc think that sometimes babies are so shocked after birth that they take a while to feed?

'Does mears etc think that sometimes babies are so shocked after birth that they take a while to feed? '

Seems logical, SK. I mean, I didn't feel much like eating after that event. I just wanted to sleep. Don't see why it should be different for all babies.

If they want to sleep, let 'em.

Maybe some people here can answer this question: why are there always on every talkboard on the web I have ever been on, regular stories of absolutely dire breastfeeding support, where women are left in pain and bleeding and in great distress, but I have only ever come across a tiny handful of stories where the mother has written to the hospital and complained?

I don't get it.

It's not time - they have time to post on the talkboard and to engage in conversations about it.

It's not that they think the story is not bad enough to make a fuss.

It's not that they don't know where to send it - they know the address of the flippin maternity unit 'cos they went there to have the baby.

I suspect it's because they think the unit won't give a toss, and they will be ignored. Well - they are not allowed to ignore complaints these days. They have to respond to them. You can probably get a quicker response if you copy the letter to the director of midwifery, the chief exec of the PCT, the PALS, and your local MP (supporting bf is government policy and is supported by all the parties in parliament).

You can get support and sympathy if you post on a talkboard, but nothing will change unless the people responsible for managing this dire state of affairs do not know about it.
And it doesn't matter when you had your baby, unless it's a few years.

nic - March is very recent. Write to them!

All - please explain why you will tell us about the lack of support and not the people who can do something about it?

Sleepy babies should not be in a crib sleeping for hours and hours.

They need to be held in the mothers arms, skin to skin, for as long as possible.

Yes, they may need to 'get over' the birth, but if this is done away from the mother's arms, then good opportunities to get bf underway are missed.

No, they should not be forced onto the breast and the breast should not be forced into them.

But they do need every opportunity to feed....and for a tired, medicated or even exhausted baby, the crib is not the place to be as they will sleep through times they would otherwise perk up just a bit, and feed.

The shocked babies especially need skin to skin - and they hardly ever get it

Tiktok, very thought provoking - I did mean to write at the time - was given a feedback form and intended to do it but I suppose things just got so stressful with new baby etc that i let it slip. Got mild PND and things were just a bit of a struggle....hadn't thought about it for a while until I saw the thread and felt like a rant. And in my heart of hearts I don't think it will change anything, but that's no excuse really!

nik - copy and paste your post from here and stick it in an email (call the hospital and find out the email address of the director of midwifery) - that is better than nothing. I do understand when life is overwhelming esp if your mental/emotional health is not great.....but you can do it now.

You could even put in a link to this thread, seriously.

i had a good experience there this year. long labour, caesarean and baby not feeding well - lost 11% birthweight and needed help. i had one-to-one care helping me to express colostrum. and subsequently milk, which was topped up with formula, and fed with a cup or syringe so as not to cause nipple confusion. then loads of caring help with bf techniques, and still happily bf nearly 6 months later.

it must depend which staff shifts you get but my midwives were wonderful. one of the nursery nurses was a bit eccentric but they all seemed to care a great deal...

very interesting tiktok about babies not being left in a crib for hours on end this is what happened to DD, I was only told to lift her to change her nappy/bathe her to try and wake her up for a feed. The consensus was I was so lucky having such a "good" baby.

I'm pregnant again planning on a homebirth and this babe will only leave me for Daddy and DD1 cuddles and for me to go the loo. I've told DP I'm staying in bed with her the whole day after shes born.

i was encouraged to hold ds skin-to-skin as much as possible and they also encouraged dp to do it too.

it was the simpson's, honest! amazing that it can be so inconsistent!

hmmm. am beginning to wonder if me leaving ds in his crib so much on the first day was what led to him getting jaundice. And I wish I hadn't been so reluctant to feed him lying down. I was terrified of squishing him, but ended up getting about 3hrs sleep a night while in hosp because he wouldn't stop feeding.

Really great points tiktok.
She's right girls-we need to get proactive!

Again,from my experience working within the NHS,letters of complaint are taken very
seriously indeed.

We need to make sure that the women who want to breastfeed get the best possible support to do so. I think that you are never so vulnerable,confused and lost as you are after having a baby.Logically therefore,you should be being cared for as you never have done before-it should be five star service!

Had ds1 at st johns livingston and he was taken immediatly to scbu. as it was emergency section under a general it was 7 hours till i got too see him. Nurses gave ds1 milk from a little cup which he lapped like a cat as they were aware i was going to b/f and they didn't want him on the bottle for this reason which was fab.

When i did get to see him a sister in scbu helped me to b/f ensuring he was latched on correctly and mustadnit if it wasn't for her i wouldn't have tried

Had twins in simpsons at new royal 21 months ago again by emergency section this time awake.They were in intensive care and needed mummy milk which nurses of intensive care encouraged. On ward(hated it as mixed wards now) i was in a side room and it was like well babies ain't there so don't need to bother with her. I had tits like bricks and cried with pain. couldn't get access to a pump, leaked through my clothes etc I got myself soo upset as my babies needed this milk to help them survive and I felt I was failing them and no-one gave a shit. When intensive care staff foud out they got me a pump and encouraged me to continue.

Think this anti and post natal mixed ward is not a good idea as mums don't get the help they need. Some of these nurses need to remember their bedside manners don't you think?

SORRY FOR THE LONG STORY(LOL)

sorry to hijack the thread but just wanted to ask moondoq, if in your opinion, complaining about waiting times in A & E for a child would be taken seriously (or is just accepted that waiting times are horrendous?)
after hearing all these horror stories (and I've heard others from friends), I am so glad I didn't have dd3 at Simpsons. Was booked in there but moved house and ended up having her at St Johns in Livingston (which by the way I would recommend (if you can make it out there expat )
Had my ds and dd2 at the old Eastern General and thought the midwives in the post-natal ward there were pretty crap too.

agree st johns was good, but did rate intensive care baby unit at new royal- not that you want your child to be there mind

Had my 2 at St Johns also. Both fab experiences - can't fault the hospital or the midwives (apart from one who was barking, but got my brestfeeding really going)