Anyone been critically ill at time of birth? What care was important to you?

[mears]

The number of women who are critically ill at the time of birth is extremely low so I don't want to panic anyone.

I am trying to write about the holistic care women need when they are critically ill at the time of delivery ie needing various drips and monitoring or indeed transfer to intensive care for a period.

Was your baby with you or in NNU?

Were you helped to breastfeed if that was your choice?

What were the good aspects of your care? What do you think was neglected?

Would like to hear experiences if you are happy to share.

Hi Mears, I had severe pre-eclampsia and was subsequently induced at 34 weeks. BP v.high and wouldn't come down was on drips, catheter and various meds + bedrest post natally.
My DD required an incubator but and was with me at all times.
I chose to BF and had some help intially but not alot really me and DH was left to it TBH.
There was one midwife who was fab but generally my care wasn't great it was quite a frightening experience and I was left for really long periods of time on my own (I was in a room rather than a ward) without being fully in the picture about my condition.
I won't name and shame the hospital as it has received enough bad press

it wasn't northwick park was it? sounds exactly like my experience there

Iwas very ill after the birth of my DD.
The care I recieved was fantastic.
I was kept on the labour ward in a room, rather than being transferred to a HDU where I would have had to share.
My DD was assigned a mw to care for her and I had a seperate midwife assigned to my care, although there was change of shifts( was in this situation for 36hours) The care was consistant.
The midwives manages all mine and my DD's care with a very gentle manner, esured that drips were changed and medication given, bed sheets changed following a full explanaion to me.
They knew I had the wish to breastfeed and between them helped my DD to achieve this, This involved one midwife holding my DD to my breast the whole time.
Also because of the number of carers I had, They tucked DD in with me and watched us closely at night. I really believe this hepled the bonding process

Thank you for your replies. I wonder if there is anyone who was separated from their baby initially?

I had HELLP syndrome at 36 weeks and had my baby by GA followed by being brought round in intensive care. When discharged I was taken back to the labour ward for 36 hours whilst my BP was stabilised and they tried to get my kidneys working. My baby was taken into SCBU partly because she appeared to have a chest infection and partly as she was unable to suck effectively. I don't know what would have happened if these issues were not present.

She was brought to me every few hours to attempt breastfeeding (she was tube fed) and was helped with this as I was too unwell to sit up or hold her.

When I was well enough to be transferred to the post natal ward I visited her in SCBU at first being taken in a wheelchair and later walked myself round. I continued to pretend to breastfeed and when she was 6 days old she began to suck effectively so she came round to the ward with me. I'm still breastfeeding her 11 months later.

Everyone was very helpful with breastfeeding and the critical care I received was excellent. The main problems that I came across where that when I was moved to the post natal ward most of the staff did not recognise how seriously ill I had been and how important my ongoing care was. I won't go into the praying nurse story but the doctors orders to check my BP hourly were ignored and I ended up back on a drip in the labour ward following a nasty rise in my BP that hadn't been detected earlier.

Twitchy - I think it is a real issue when women are transferred to the postnatal ward after being cared for on a 1-1 basis. The leap often seems to great.

I am glad to hear positive aspects of care. Thansk you.

Hi mears, I had an internal infection with DS1 which was only discovered mid emergency c-section and haemorrhage.

Everyone was in such a flurry post op that I didn't get to hold DS for about 3 hours, COMPLETELY unnecessarily, which did affect the bonding process.

I did breastfeed and I did receive some support, but no one bothered to tell me that once I had the drip removed from the crook of my arm it would suddenly get much easier! I was on a ward for 2 nights, but got virtually no sleep due to continual rounds of screaming new borns. I was eventually given my own room when it became apparent that I couldn't stop crying, and this made all the difference.

Basically, it felt like all my medical needs were being met but I was at sea with the beginning of motherhood and felt there was no one to watch over my whole self and give me/ seek out pointers IYSWIM.