Had a horrible ante natal hospital experience today...don't want to go back..ever! Homebirth??

[nicolamumof3]

well was asked to go into today to get checked as had a persistent pain the top of my bump and a hard lump there for at least a week now.

its just under my ribs. Im 21+6

first of all was told they couldn't see me as hospital was full, that may have to go to antoher hospital that was about 15miles away. They called back said that hospital also full so to come there but may be a wait.

This is a new multi million pound state of the art hospital. Which obviously cannot cope, lots of mums have transferred to use the new facilities, and lots of labouring local mums are being turned away as they are 'full'

anyway, after two hours wait a midwife saw me took bp, temp, urine and listened heartbeat. All ok. Dh left to pick up younger dc from school. MW said doctor was on rounds and would see me asap. Three hours later no doc, i dishcarged myself. Im still suffering ms, was freezing cold, needed a drink and was desperate to get home. MW's were quite insistent i stayed, but i explained that dh couldn't collect me any later and we had no idea how long doc would be.

Sorry for long rambling post just feel let down again by nhs, or am i unreasonable in expecting to have been seen within 5hrs?

I am now not feeling confident in any care that i may receive at this hospital. I have low lying placenta and have scan at 34w am hoping it moves as wouldn't want to go back in for a CS, am now considering a hb.

Still in pain, still no idea whats wrong, just taking comfort in fact that bp was ok, and am still feeling lots of movements.

nicola may I ask which hosp this was? Pm me if you like.

As far as low lying placenta is concerned, tis fairly common at 20 wks, (which is when I'm assuming you found out at scan) ?Chances are high that it will move completely out of the way so I wouldn't worry too much about that.

Did they mention anything about a possible hernia or pulled muscle?

I think at this stage the baby is well, moving lots, regular checks were all ok, perhaps next port of call would be gp, maybe it's not pg related.

As for your treatment, I would think 5 hrs for a pregnant woman to be left in pain is more than enough to be seen in. Perhaps write to hom expressing your concerns about your future care.

As for HB, why not? Is your pg low risk?

It was Pembury Hospital in Kent.

To be honest it sounds like where i work. I always tell women that our antenatal assessment centre is like a&e. If its life threatening you'll be seen straight away. If its not serious you wait. The dr may well be covering labour ward and gynae as well. Sorey but i think you're being unrealistic.

I knew you were gonna say that nicola despite this new unit, they are now telling women that it's full until Septmember, where the bloody hell are they supposed to go then?

And despite the new building, seems the care hasn't improved at all then?

viva perhaps if they had told nicola the risk of that happening then as you do, it wouldn't have seemed so bad. Poor communication.

Homebirth is your choice.

HB and low lying placenta - not a good idea

thank you lia, i just said that to dh, if only they'd come back say once an hour? and said the doctor has to see another 10 patients etc, just give me a sign of what was happening? or let me know where i could make myself a drink or something?

Im finding everything still a struggle as got MS still at nearly 22w. I don't think of myself as a neurotic mum this is my fourth pg.

MW did confirm that the doctor was covering labour as well. DH was fuming, all those millions spent on a new building but one doctor covering all those patients. I was just in tears and wanted to get home.

I think if you feel it is serious enough to warrant prompt attention & pain relief it doesn't make sense to discharge yourself based on when you can get a lift- no matter how inconvenient, but I appreciate that many won't agree.

I am glad you are feeling partialy reassured though & hope you feel better soon :).

would only obviously consider a HB if its shown at 34w scan that placenta has moved and there is no bleeding previously.

Nicola have you had a HB before? I can't remember from the July thread! Or is there a different hospital you can book under instead?

hey i feel the same as you.

I have been set on a homebirth since before i was pg, and still am. my treatment in the nearest hospital where i can give birth (45mins - 1hour+ drive away) confirmed i never ever want to go back there....

was suffereing from extreme sickness and was very dehydrated and needed a drip..... the short story is my GP spoke to duty hospital dr at 10am, and agreed i was coming in for IV rehydration ASAP, (having not kept anything at all down for over 72 hours)
Was at hospital at 11am, barely able to stand, and in ante-natal ward by 11.10. It took until 3pm (5 hours after it was decided i was very dehyrdarted and needed hydrating "urgently") to be put on a drip. In this time i wasnt even offered any water either
(i could have walked to the corridor to help myself to some lunch, but as i could hardly stand up, and would have vomited it anyway, i stayed in bed waiting for a dr)

Out of interest what was the other hospital they advised you go to? Haywards Heath?

I know your pain.

I have some appts at the mat hosp and some at the community midwife centre.

Today at the mat hosp I had an US and saw a consultant and was in and out within an hour.

The previous 3 appts I waited 2-3 hours each time to be seen. no info on waiting times as you say.

I never wait more than 15mins to be seen at the midwife unit where I have standard antenatal appts.

As others have said, the mat hospital deal with emergencies, are under pressure to squeeze extra people into clinics, and are more likely to have difficult and lengthy appointments because problems crop up. In comparison the midwife unit do a few basic checks on healthy pg women and are less likely to run behind schedule.

It's very annoying - I do sympathise - and it'd be good if they could give updates on expected waiting time etc but I think the only thing we can do is be grateful that we're not the ones who need seen immediately or who cause later appts to slip as they are worse off than us.

I am watching with interest, had my baby at Maidstone, think my only choice next time (not really thinking about when that will be yet, but don't want to wait too long) will be a C sect, and will probably be sent to Pembury - really concerned as the distance is a worry enough, let alone other problems I have heard about.
I booked a home birth with DD, had the pool set up. Then got high bp, strep, and she was breech.

Hope you get sorted OP - would Maidstone or Ashford be any better - they have midwife led don't they - if your pregnancy is low risk that would be another choice. Have to say, although I dreaded C sect in hospital, the care was very good, I was seen very quickly every time I went in for monitoring, was in practically every day for about 2 weeks, never took much longer than about 3 hrs, and that was the longest, on a sunday evening, waiting for consultant.

The only problem there is with giving updates is that things change all the time and the Drs don't update us. We may know that they're doing an emergency section which would take an hour but after that they could end up doing another section, going to a gynae emergency, going to a collapse on the p/n ward, etc. The Dr is too busy to update us and they get annoyed with us if we keep bleeping them to ask them how long they'll be (which also slows them down if everyone keeps bleeping them).

I do make an effort if people are waiting a long time to give them tea/coffee. But again if its really busy there isn't always the time, and I guess you don't get that in a&e.

It is bad having to wait so long but I'm afraid this is the NHS. They don't have the staff to see non emergencies quickly. If you'd been in pain for a week before going in you'd have been quite a low priority. I do think that there isn't any reason to not have confidence in the care they provide as I really think this situation is common to all hospitals. It does seem unfair though that they're letting too many women book care there and then being full up.

At our hospital we tried briefly having one Dr available for the assessment centre and a different one for labour ward/gynae. They sat twiddling their thumbs for most of the time and the higher powers said it wasn't cost effective and stopped it. One of the main problems is is that there is no way of accurately predicting workload on a day to day basis. If you'd gone another day it could have been quieter and you may have been seen straight away.

if only they'd come back say once an hour? and said the doctor has to see another 10 patients etc, just give me a sign of what was happening? or let me know where i could make myself a drink or something?

Well they are very busy & probably don't have time to keep giving you updates! If you needed a drink, I am sure they would have said, had you asked. Same if you needed a time frame. After waiting for some time, I would have gone to get an update anyway, just so I knew what was going on.

I think you ABU to expect them to keep updating you, tho.

I have to agree that the MW should give regular updates- and a rough idea of how long you are likely to wait - even if it cant be accurate- something along the lines of "normal waiting times are around 2 hours" or "today is very busy and we expect very long waiting times" etc - just to give an idea/update of whats going on.

Its plain rude to leave people (regardless if its A&E, antenatal or a bog standard Drs appointment at your local Dr surgery) hanging around without any sort of update or warning of high waiting times.

yep if they'd said that at 3pm could be waiting til 8pm or later then i would have known.

the problem was i was in a private room with a long walk to front desk i didn't really want to move too far in case the doctor did arrive, it wasn't as if i was on a ward with easy access to staff. This new hospital is all private rooms, no wards.

Im just hoping that my placenta will move up, my GTT will come back negative, and my spd doesn't get too bad so i can hopefully plan a HB.

Just wanted to say have you thought about Crowborough Birthing Centre??

As long as your placenta moves and everything else looks good it could be a great alternative to a HB?

I don't work on a labour ward but often have to deal with irate pateints and their relatives demanding to see a doctor ro know when one will be free and all I can say is the person they are dealing with are a higher priority and they will come round when free.

It's not like a bank or a shop, doctors are often overworked or have to drop things at late notice because something happens with another patient.

What you have posted would not put me off of having my baby ther - obviously you were a low prioruity but when you are in Labour you won't be.

Imagine you consultant nipping off to see another patient whilst you were in labour because that patiwent was tired of waiting?

YABU totally
why didn't you call your MW or GP first rather than the labour ward, I do understand it can be really frustrating waiting but you were a low priority, am pretty sure you could have walked 'all that long way' to ask for a blanket and a drink of water or where the machine was, and you only had to explain where you were going, surely you must have visited the bathroom while waiting? It's a shame all we do these days is demand and having your DH getting angry was totally unreasonable. I'm sure the hospital is hoping your placenta moves too so they don't have to deal with you!

Are you not the same poster who is not happy with your scan either, and you've found out you're having a girl after a couple of boys and your disappointed? hmmmmmm

I don't know anything about your hospital, but I have had to have some unscheduled antenatal checks at mine in both this and my last pregnancy (hyperemesis, unexplained bleeding, excessive BHs etc). Generally I have found that there is a fairly long wait to see a doctor (although by this point I've always been assessed by a midwife and all looking ok). However, when my labour went a bit 'wrong' the last time, a registrar was there within minutes, and a consultant about 5-10 minutes after she paged him (I then became the person taking up hours of these people's time while they attemted a forceps delivery and ultimately did a c-section). I do suspect that they just prioritise based on medical need, and your antenatal experience might not be indicative of the care that you would get in labour, mine certainly wasn't.

YABU

You shouldnt have got up and left, that sounds crazy TBH.

I felt really bad recently when I had to take my screaming DD who was 12months at the time to A&E because the staff kept saying sorry but there was a long wait, I remember thinking well I can understand that I am not going to be angry.

They rushed her through in 1 hour as she was young and in a lot of pain and some people who had been there 6 hours got really angry about it but she was in a lot of pain and a baby and it was about 11PM so she was very tired.

I dont understand why people get angry about this when I 8 and 15 I had life threatening accidents and had to go straight in I would feel awful if someone in a life threatening situation or a great deal of pain was made to wait because I had been there longer.

The midwives at our local new shiny unit have all had their hours cut to 30 per week, the unit is on it's knees but the it system up grade is going a head.

oneaminute, i was in a private room had its own bathroom. I didn't demand anything i was really calm until i thought i would vomit all over the desk then all i did was cry, my dh was angry but did not express this at all to the staff.

when you have been experiencing permanent ms for several months it makes it harder to deal with more uncomfortable situations.

I didn't 'call the labour ward' as you put it, All our Mw's are based at the hospital you call them and go in with any queries outside of clinic times at my gps so if not a wednesday or thursday afternoon you have to go via the hospital. I was on antenatal ward which is attached to the day assesment. Seperate from labour. I didn't at any stage think i was more important than any other pateient but the lack of communication i feel is a problem and the fact that the hospital has taken on more patients than it can cope with worries me that local mums are being turned away.

My point being that this brand new hospital seems to be chronically understaffed.

My labours have always been very fast, so a HB would make more sense then driving to a hospital some 20miles or so away, so am hoping my complications will be resolved nearer to my due date. I am also having GTT next month as diabetes runs in family, am not sure if this is then classed as a complication?

I know it is rare that i will experience any bleeding but feel disappointed that i have been offered no information either about placenta praevia i had to investigate it myself.