the NHS under labour.
My birth story.
2000
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I had to stay in for 8 days, at a large very well known hospital in the south east, to be induced due to severe SPD and a bursitis on my hip, I had to stay in a private room at the request of the physio. (The room was filthy, the bins were not emptied and there was blood in the shower room (not mine))
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my labour was due to be induced within 24 hours of my arrival, but due to numbers it wasn’t done for 3 days. (I could have been at home during this period rather than bed blocking) but, I was very lucky to be there at all tbh, as the maternity ward kept getting closed around that time and did for several years after due to extreme capacity issues.
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during my induction, I met a woman who was in labour and suffering from pre-eclampsia, she kept telling them she was having contractions, but they dismissed her with braxton hicks, despite being on the induction ward, they didn’t believe her, she was increasingly poorly, and her husband kept trying to get the attention of the midwives, who dismissed their concerns and just laughed her off, due to being a first time mum. Not long later, she crashed into unconscious at 10 cm and almost went into full renal failure due to the pre eclampsia issues that they laughed off and ignored, She ended up having an emergency c-section, and her and the baby nearly died. She was left with long term kidney damage.
4)I was induced as planned, on the induction ward, later on, it wasn’t moving as quickly as they so I was given a painful sweep, without consent or warning, from a really unfriendly and abrupt male doctor.
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During my labour, An anesthetist, placed a canular in my arm for a saline drip. An hour or so later, my arm felt heavy and painful. It was swollen to three times it’s size, nobody had checked or noticed, that the canular had missed my vein and was pumping saline directly into my tissue and not my bloodstream. I later struggled to lift my daughter and had huge painful bruising all up my arm.
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After the birth, which had other issues to long to list, I was losing masses of blood and nearly passed out. Husband went to ask the midwife what to do, she said angrily “what do you want me to do about it?”.
Later, I was struggling with breast feeding and my daughter had lost 10% of her body weight, I had a very rude midwife who snapped at me to tell me off, for not paying attention or understanding, during the allotted 5 mins she gave me with a knitted boob, that I was shown, and was somehow supposed to make it clear. I wanted to give up, and they made me feel awful for failing my daughter. Thank god, later that evening, there was a new Caribbean temp midwife who saw the distress I was in, and sat with me, to support and help me for as long as it took to get the hang, I will be forever grateful to her. She was actually a private nurse, brought in to help with demand, she normally worked at the portland hospital apparently, and she was amazing.
Eventually, I got to go home, not before my husband had paid nearly £100 fir hospital parking that week.
Also 2000.
My 62 yr old grandma died in a different hospital, she had had a massive heart attack. In less than 24 hours, after that heart attack, she was placed onto a stroke recovery ward with zero monitoring, due to no space in critical care. She died sometime during the night from another massive heart attack, all alone, and wasn’t found or noticed by the nurses until the first ward duties the next morning.
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Her husband, my step grandfather, died a hideously painful death at home, from throat cancer, with not enough meds or nurse help to assist him in his final hours. My dad and other family had to spend two excruciating weeks fighting desperately for everything he needed and didn’t get.
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My great aunt,
Fell and broke her hip. Should have been straightforward, she had an op to fix it. During her stay, she aquired a hospital super bug, she had to have her legs amputated below the hips, sadly, the stumps became gangrenous and she died a hideous death in hospital, smelling so bad, that it was almost impossible to enter the room.
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My other grandmother 73 died of ovarian cancer that had been passed off as just back pain for two years. She kept being sent away with pain killers, by the time it was finally diagnosed and they tried to operate, her whole abdomen was basically 2/3rds tumour. She couldn’t be saved. She died a few days after the surgery.
In 2010 (still labour)
Her husband, my lovely 93 yr old grandad died, (he had cancer) having been shoved in a short stay emergency ward with pneumonia for 4 days. His wish had been to die with us at home, we tried to see a doctor during that whole time, we were not expecting a miracle diagnosis, just the opportunity to discuss his options for a dignified death and whether it were possible to achieve. They never came to speak with us, not one, the whole time. On the fifth day, at 5 am, we received a phonecall to tell us to come in to be with him. He was now unconscious and it was obviously too late now to discuss those options. We accepted the situation, he was moved (finally) to a private room. (We still didn’t ever see a doctor, just nurses). There were 5 of us, all close family members who wanted to be with him at the end (a couple who were elderly) There were only two chairs, I went to ask at the nurses station, if we could get a couple of extra chairs. They had a go at me, were really rude and said snappily that we were not allowed more than two visitors at a time, so we need to ask them to leave. I was very angry. It was a private room, out of the way and he was unconscious and dying ffs. He needed and wanted these people there, we had discussed it before he went in. It was awful.
Anyway. Is the NHS a mess? Yes. Is it a new thing? No, it fucking isn’t. I don’t agree with privatisation, but tbf, if it’s better than this? Then maybe it’s the right thing. I don’t know. One thing I do know, is our sentimentality towards it, is blinding us to the realities of the situation. It needs money, yes, of course it does, but if all that money just gets pissed up the wall, with no real plan or reform, then things are not going to improve at all. Would worked when it came inti existence and what works now, are two different things. Maybe it’s time we were all realistic about that. It’s all very well blaming the tories, but there are horror stories from way before them. It’s a huge problem. Using it as a political football helps no one. It should always stay free at the point of use, however, to achieve that, maybe an element of privatisation is necessary? It just seems like a bottomless pit at the moment, and I don’t know how ANY of the main parties can truly resolve that.
Sorry if this post is out of sync, it’s taken me ages to write!