i know there are a lot of women who have had bad experiences due to the incompetance and uncaring attitude of some midwifes.lots of them seem reluctant to talk about this(understandably),but think we need to speak up and hopefully(eventually)things will change.
i arrived at hospital for my sons birth(my first) nearly fully dilated and although i told the midwife this, she told me i had 8 hours to go(i had already been in labour for 24).it took her 1 1/2 hours to tell me she was wrong and that i was ready to push.
before this she had tried to break my waters twice(they had already broken naturally but very slowly and i didnt realise}and my poor baby had sores on his head where she had proded him.
she gave me no help with alternative birth positions and turned the whole experience into a nightmare(i was coping fine and probably would have continued to do so).i ended up getting an eleventh hour epidural(which was done beautifully-no back pain)cause it turned out the baby was sideways with the cord wrapped round,although if i had been treated better i dont think i would have DEMANDED this.
anyway everything was ok in the end but my image of midwifes being good caring people was shattered.this bitch was not only bad at her job but also had a bad attitude.
finally does anyone know of a national body that deals with complaints.i also know that my story is nothing compared to what has happened to other women.
thanx for reading