MNHQ here: do you have experience of birth injuries that led to longer-term health problems?

[ClaireTMumsnet]

Hello,

We at MNHQ are getting ready to launch the next phase of our ongoing Better Postnatal Care campaign www.mumsnet.com/campaigns/better-postnatal-care. The first part of the campaign was focused on women’s experiences on postnatal wards. This second phase will focus on women’s experiences of birth injuries and related health conditions, especially those which can affect women for months or years after birth.

As part of our campaign, we’re looking for Mumsnet users who are or have been affected by health conditions that arose as a result of birth injuries or difficult births, who would be willing to be media case studies to help publicise the campaign. [MESSAGE EDITED to remove reference to women having given birth in the past three years - MNHQ]

We're talking about things such as painful scarring from birth injuries or stitches, pelvic organ prolapses, pain or discomfort that affects sex, or problems with urinary or faecal incontinence.

We’re looking for as broad a range of experiences as possible - we'd love to hear from both women who sought and received good medical care, and those who have not sought medical care (and those who sought it but did not receive what they needed).

If this sounds like you and you’d be comfortable talking to the media about your experience – anonymously or not – please email [email protected] for more information.

Getting in touch with us does not commit you to acting as a case study. We always run any media opportunities past our volunteers, and you will always have the final say about whether to go ahead with a media opportunity or not.

Finally, ideally you'd be reasonably available and in the country/near a reliable phone during the first couple of weeks of April.

Thanks very much,

MNHQ

There isn't a single day that goes by without me wishing I'd been more assertive and less trusting when I gave birth to my daughter 6 years ago. In hindsight after 34 hours of labour I wasn't going to have much energy to push her out myself, so I should have insisted on a caesarean. However, I'd been made aware of all the risks of caesareans, without any mention of what can happen if your vaginal birth suddenly needs instruments. 3 attempts with the ventouse, and then out came the forceps. One of the doctors said afterwards how brave I was - I guess one of the benefits of trauma is you blank out quite a lot of it (apart from if I think about being put in stirrups again - which reduces me to tears immediately). Six years on I have bad coccyx pain if I sit for longer than half an hour. Heavy periods that cannot be managed with a mooncup because I have been damaged internally and flood around it. Numbness where I have scar tissue. Using a tampon means shoving my partly prolapsed bladder out of the way. Physio did nothing. I used a pelvic floor exerciser... no improvement. I'm ruined. And the thing that angers me most is the fact they do not tell you about these potential risks.

I fractured my coccyx in labour with my second son after he got stuck in the birth canal & the doctors used forceps to turn him. The whole room heard the crack as my coccyx broke.
11 years on & I'm still having severe issues with my back.

I’m due to undergo surgery for a rectocoele in a few months, I’m in my late 30s with small children. My prolapse is the result of a long back to back labour with my first child and pre-existing problems with hyper mobility (that I wasn’t aware of before having children). My care during delivery was exemplary but like pp, I think I was totally failed by non-existent postnatal care. At the six week check after my first child, the gp failed to diagnose my (then mild) prolapse and there was no check after my second child! The focus is entirely on the baby, with no recognition of the significant physical damage that birth can cause in women. Had I known I had a prolapse, I probably wouldn’t have done the heavy lifting in the garden that pushed my mild prolapse into a grade iii one (I literally felt it pop ). Thankfully, because of a separate, pre-existing gynae condition I have access to an excellent gynaecologist, and I am getting the care that I need.

I am really concerned that, due to the lack of decent postnatal care, many postnatal women will be walking around with a mild prolapse that they are unaware of. I find this particularly worrying when i see the intense exercise regimes that are pushed at postnatal women. Undiagnosed prolapse plus long distance running or weightlifting is not a good combination! Not helped by a lot of fitness professionals being a bit oblivious to health issues in postnatal women.

My problems are a bit different - I had 3 children in 3.4 years, SPD in each pregnancy and I still get sciatica frequently. I got two sessions with a physio when I stopped breastfeeding DS, and the physio and I both assumed once my pelvis was realigned it would stay that way. It didn’t, but by the time I realised that I’d been discharged and it’s a huge faff re-referring yourself. Current waiting list in my area is at least 13 weeks. And the website for MSK referrals goes neck pain, shoulder and arm pain, back pain, knee pain, foot pain without a pause at pelvis/hips. The woman on the referral line had never heard of SPD and had to ask the physio on duty if it was a condition they could treat - she initially said they didn’t do pelvic floor stuff, despite the pelvic floor being a muscle and them being an MSK hotline. I moved house so the referral got lost somewhere along the way and I can’t face doing it again.

This is an extremely important issue for women. Well done and thank you for taking it on, MNHQ

I had a traumatic birth in France but have no ongoing problems thanks to good postnatal care.

Most importantly:

(1) My 6-week postnatal check up was with the same obstetrician who followed me through pregnancy and birthed the baby (not with a nurse or GP). It was all about me, not the baby, who has his own appointment with his pediatrician.

(2) Like every woman who gives birth in France, I was sent for +10 sessions of perineal physio straight after the 6-week check up. This is with an electronic device that you squeeze, and which can also be set to electrically stimulate the muscles. Urinary stress incontinance (when sneezing, running, or jumping) after birth is just not a thing here.

I hope this campaign reaches the people who can make a difference. It is not right that women are routinely left with lifelong problems in one of the most advanced and affluent countries in the world.

TooExtraImmatureCheddar
Please follow it up. My daughter is now 7 and after suffering SPD during pregnancy I am still walking with a stick and not able to sit on the sofa. Also in great pain almost constantly.
Phyisio did help with the pain but I was told I was not allowed any more sessions.

I would like to get involved . Do we just reply on here or do I e mail you and who to address it to??

Hello all,

Thanks for all of your responses - we're reading every response at MNHQ.

Claire at MNHQ

@Lilifer

I would like to get involved . Do we just reply on here or do I e mail you and who to address it to??

Hi Lilifer,

You can either post here or email Claire at MNHQ on [email protected]

Thanks!

Claire

I had my daughter in 2012, vaginal birth. I was induced, and then in non-labour contractions for 2 days. No sleep. They were about to declare a failed induction (I was two weeks overdue), but my waters went. Long story short, I ended up having an epidural, then long stage 2, baby got distressed, so ventouse and a cut. No flaws in my care, but the episiotomy didn't heal. Multiple infections. Agonising sex. Agonising. A year after that birth had revision surgery. Much much better, but one side of my buttocks is disfigured, and the revision surgery made everything look very different. I still have pain. The consultant who did the surgery said that internally was 'an utter-mess'. Like I said, it was all just chance.. I went on to have a very civilised c section , as the consultant said my scar tissue wouldn't cope with a vaginal delivery again..

Spinal fractures- (probably during c/s) palmed off as "all mothers have back pain". Unable to even lean over newborn twins, I lived crawling between 2 rooms and bathroom. Had to employ nannies to live in and care for babies. 3 months before fractures diagnosed. Turned out to be a medically recognised, but little known condition - pregnancy related osteoporosis- calcium intake of foetus during last trimester and 3months post especially if breastfeeding rockets and your skeleton crumbles. I feel lucky now, I only broke a few vertebrae, I know of women breaking 8 or more at once also going undiagnosed as whingers. Impacts hugely on bonding- can't even hold baby or be alone with baby. They were just over a year old before I was strong enough to cater for their basic needs and be with them for a few hours alone. Mental health - everyone thinks I'm making this up, I'm a mother but I can't even lift them, change nappy. Finances, employing nannies, being unable to go back to work in same job. Relationships, lack of intimacy, becoming someone who also needs looking after. Physically, ongoing fractures, organ crowding, loss of height, posture, hernia, prolapses, inability to do sports.The not knowing and being scolded by NHS staff with demanding voices "why are you crying" - for 3 months at the point my beautiful babies were born and I needed to bond with and care for them hurts as much as my body does

Passing, I am so sorry you had this experience. And I thought I went through hell with dismissive hcps who didn't realise how ill I was.
MNHQ, do you get the picture now?

1988 -5lb baby and I needed a massive episiotomy
1992 - 6lb baby with third degree tear

Five years ago needed tvt repair for urinary in continence

And now worried about the tvt!!!!

I have sent a short email - but 20 yrs later I have daily pain and inconvenience.........

If I had been listened to pre-birth this could have been prevented or minimised