Northwick Park Hospital Maternity Unit

[bunny75]

Had the most diabolical experience there.....just wondered if anyone else had a story to tell.....maybe you had a good one?

Hi. No I haven't but I have read somewhere else about this maternity unit. Not sure if it was on here or another site. I heard that it was very bad. The staff weren't very good or helpful, the place was dirty, understaffed etc, What happened to you??

Haven't they stopped sending trainee midwives there as it's so bad?? I defo read that somewhere.

they actually closed it down temporarily last year as an enquiry had exposed 10 deaths during 'routine' c-sections in a period of like 2yrs!! this was after i had my son there....if i had a whole day spare i could tell you my experience!! but basically the staff on the whole were awful, unsympathetic, forced me be induced and take a bath alone and have 2 paracetamol whilst having contractions.....wouldnt allow me to call my husband in early labour as i was on a prenatal ward and it was in the middle of the night, was given epidural after much desperate begging, then after 29hrs, my baby was delivered by the midwife from hell by ventouse. i was then stitched up, wiped over with a cold flannel and left in a makeshift ward with 2 other women for hours with no milk (i chose not to breastfeed, and they weren't pleased with it!) for the baby, and had to shout down the corridor until someone heard me.....by the time my husband came back in the afternoon i was begging to go home.....i could go on.....it was like something you hear your parents/grandparents tell you about.....totally ruined my first birth experience and had put me off having another since (my son is now 3 and a half)......sorry, rant over....just wondered if it was just me!

Bunny, are you me?? I had exactly the same experience as you at NWP. Am about to have op to have botched stitch job sorted... I certainly wouldn't use that hospital again!! (actually don't think I could go through again.

I had my daughter there Dec 01 and had a similar experience , I was told by a trainee that I was not in labour and shd go home , then a trainee could not decide if I was or was'nt dilated, they decided I was'nt and after much protesting from me was put out the back on a bed in a place which looked a bit like a storage room,oh they gave me a paracetomol also , really helpful an hour later rang and rang the bell after about 20 mins they came and I was fully dilated and in agony, by then it was too late for anything for the pain and they took me quickly on a wheelchair rould the corner where this Thai midwife who was pretty scary shouted at me to push that was it really , then they stuck me back to the cuboard room , they must of had no space on the wards, they did tell me where I could get the little bottles of forumula down the corridor , I know it sounds silly but I did'nt really know any different as it was my first and it was all very confusing and scary. I was 7 days early and I am very small only 6 1/2 stone and was 7 1/2 stone full term so the lady said she thought I could not be in labour, all very strange though

weren't all their maternity patients sent to the portland, while they sorted themselves out?

bunny - your birth experience sounds like my first and that was at a different hospital. I have heard about the northwick though, it's quite contraversial.

I think all maternity hospitals up and down the country have their good staff and not so good staff. On my first baby the staff were awful, downright unhelpful, lazy and utterly useful. With my 2nd the staff were excellent and that was the same hospital. It did take me a long time to recover after my 1st birth and it took me a long time to pluck up the courage to have another one.

I had ds there in 1998 - spent night in labour but told I wasn't in labour and to take two paracetemol and 'go to sleep'. As my waters had broken 24 hours ago, the next morning I was told I would be induced and when the doctor examined me - he asked why on earth I was being induced when I was so far dilated?! - rush job to the labour ward where all the staff were fantastic and ds born in the evening.

so glad to hear i wasnt the only one!! You would think that when they know its your first, they would try to exercise the 'bedside manner' just a little more....but during my labour, they were so understaffed and had to keep rushing off to theatre for emergency csections that they probably couldn't be bothered.

Hi Renfrew
You're reporting to Mumsnet HQ by mistake. (The red exclamation mark on the right hand side is for messages that
Mumsnetters consider to be offensive and want us to know about.)
Please check your email!
Hope this helps
Olivia
MNHQ

Hi
I had an equally bad time at Northwick park hospital. I thought I was going to
die, I think my whole family did. I had a c-
section but a week later, after laxatives i spent an hour & a half trying to
go to the toilet so i could get out of the hospital
from hell, I had the Thai lady as well, who did nothing but shout, she was awful.
Well, I never went to the toilet, so, that meant
yet another day in the hospital. So the next day, they gave me stronger laxatives to make me go, well, I ate my dinner, went to get up to go to the toilet & felt something warm inbetween my legs, I had no idea what had happened but my husbands face went white, so I realised something really bad was wrong, he then told me what had happened, my intestines had come out of my stomach as I had sat up. I can go on & on about this for so many other things they did were wrong. They put me in a lift with normal
people with my guts coming out more & more, I felt sorry for the people in the lift who had to see this & all I kept thinking
of, very silly I know, was the humptey dumptey nursey song put me back together
again. I thought, I was never going to see
my daughter again. When I had the c-section, the guy that did it was late, he looked like he had been smoking dope or he had just got out of bed, not sure what would have been the better. He cut me from one side to the other & my scare is about 7 to 8 inches & crooked. Also i remember, as he was sewing me up inside, that the nurse with him said, what on earth are you doing, you must be joking, then he said staple gun, at this point, I think, I may have passed out.
Other complications I had, was the drips I was on, running out & my blood being filled back up in the bags, so then I was to frightened to fall asleep, after this had happened a couple of times, I was actually told by the midwives that i had to watch my drips & then let them know that the fluid had run out, so they could change it. In the end my husband stayed & slepted on a chair next to me in the hospital for he did not want to leave me on my own. As soon as I was well enough I left the hospital.
I have never done anything about my nightmare at Northwick park hospital but feel now, that i would like to do something about this, maybe you know someone I may contact to take this further.
I haven't had any more children, for I am now frightened of having another c-section & of normal child birth. Lauren was born on 23.01.02

I've heard bad things about Northwick Park Hospital .. it was in the news recently.

My two dds were born there.
Dd1, born 1999. I was admitted as my waters had broken, everything was fine and i was seen to whenever i asked .. when i began to have contractions every 6 mins in the early hours i was checked straight away and told i was 4cm so had to go to the labour ward.
I asked if i could call dh and wait till he came to help me down. In the labour ward, they gave us extra blankets, so dh could sleep and made us tea, etc .. so i found it a nice experience.
After birth, i had to wait about 15 mins in a wheelchair for a bed with dd in my arms, but that was okay.
I was seen by 3 different midwives, nurses who stopped to chat and helped me try to breatfeed (which wasn't going well) so it was all going well.
However i didn't like the matron, she was so rude and when i asked to be dishcarged .. that went smoothly, but matron came to semi-apologise for her rudeness by telling me it was because she was busy dealing with a stillbirth . I thought it very unprofessional of her.

2nd dd's birth was fine and straightforward. I remember the midwife wanting to leave for a while, but i said 'no, stay, i'll be quick!' so she stayed and i gave birth a couple of hours later

The Healthcare Commission's report on Northwick Park is here