Panorama has terrified me!

[oysterpots]

I'm not anywhere near any of the hospitals featured but the programme has just made me feel so like I won't be in control of what happens to me when I go into labour.

I know it's unlikely that anything bad will happen but is there anything we can do to make our own situations come with as little risk as possible?

Those poor people...

Oyster,the programme was extremely shocking,but not ALL hospitals are like this.I have had two children in the last four years.One in the local hospital mat unit and one in local midwife led unit.I had two midwives in attendance at the latter stages of my first delivery even though they were exceptionally busy.The care was brilliant.Ditto good care from the MLU.Not all the care is as bad as in the programme tonight.I watched it and felt exceptionally sad for the women and the staff that were having to work under these extremely short staffed and stressful circumstances.It was third world.

I agree about the attitude problem. I guess it's easy to get blasee (can't do an accent and god knows how you spell that word!) about women in pain when you see it day in, day out, but it's not any less agonising for those women who are experiencing it for the first, maybe the only, time. "Tell her to get a life" - FFS!

And yes I agree, it IS one of the most dangerous times in a woman's/baby's life, not that you'd think so from the despicable lack of resources. One midwife to 23 women - OMG!

mad4, had both of my dd's at Derby City and had great care through out, Derby are one of the better ones in the East Mids, so don't worry you'll be in great hands (PS if you can get the pool go for it, highly recommend it )

Mad4 - I was born in Derby City Hospital. Can highly recommend it! I was transverse and it was in the days before routine ultrasounds so my poor mum got rushed from her little local maternity home to the scary city hospital and they saved her life and mine. This was all a few years ago, mind!

Am having my twins at Chelsea and Westminster in the summer. Wish it hadn't been featured in the programme...

Have just watched it online and found it fairly upsetting. Due in less than 3 weeks now and have to admit that it doesn't fill me with confidence! Antenatal care so far on the whole has been very good but must admit that I'm a little worried about having a hospital birth and being neglected. Mind the hospital I'm attending is all new and shiny and apparently very well equiped. If anything it's the m/w's attitudes that worry me the most and the way they can make you feel like an inconveience.

at that poor woman being left in the corridor whilst she was in labour. I wouldn't treat a rodent like that!

Yes I agree that accidents do and can happen, but staff neglecting and ignoring patients is totally unacceptable. Quite shocking on the whole. Thank god my mum will be with me to make sure I'm ok, don't know if I'd have an awful lot of confidence if I knew she wouldn't be.

*Inconvenience

My experience in Kent & Canterbury was shocking, 4 years ago. It's now been downgraded to a 'birting unit' and they haven't even got any doctors there.
I booked for a home birth but my iron is still low and they may not 'allow' it - which means leaving DS(3) about an hour's drive away with my parents, if I have to stay in hospital.
the whole programme reminded me of how out of control me and most of my friends felt, during and after labour.
Sorry to say but I really found it very realistic compared to my experience and what I've heard from close friends - shocking indeed.

Just to elaborate - the hospital was in no way busy when I was having DS1, but I was left alone a great deal, my mother woke and saved DS's life by realising the beeps had slowed down to about 80...she ran to get the midwife and they got him out quickly then. But nobody would have noticed, they were off having cups of tea somewhere.
After labour I was very sick (drug reaction?) and was left vomiting, on the ward, alone, for an hour or two before someone came to help.
Nobody told me what was going on, nobody seemed bothered at all except the Bounty pack lady, who was heard to comment 'why doesn't someone help that poor girl?' She couldn't do much except give me the 'new mum' pack - irony of that. Someone else had to change my new baby's nappy, I couldn't even lift him up when he cried as I was so ill. I don't know who that was.
It was appalling.

explains about doulas, divamum!

basically a doula is a woman,usually one who has had her own babies, who supports other women through labour, and delivery....she meets the woman at least twice before the delivery, gets to know her, her hopes, her fears, her anxieties, and makes sure that she can give her total one to one emotional support throughout her birth, however long! doulas go on call for their clients from 38 - 42 weeks, ready to go as soon as their clients need them ! doulas do not have a clinical role, they are an emotional support , and it has been shown through research that having one to one continous emotional support in labour can reduce the odds of a section by up to 50 % ,and same for instrumental delivery

having someone by your side, supporting you, encouraging you, can make all the difference

train doulas all over the UK

there is a link to my website on my profile which explains more too!

flightattendant - re iron levels and homebirth

start taking spatone NOW! it is a natural supplement that boosts iron levels, also eat lots of dark green veg, don;t drink tea and coffee with it as can inhibit iron absorption

and look at this site homebirth site!

Have been taking Fersamal, is Spatone better? I was 9 about 6 weeks ago, now only 9.5...with 5 weeks before due date! (was 7.9 with DS1 so hoping I can crack this)
Thanks again, we all need you this morning don't we!!!

I know someone who hired a midwife and she was with her throughout her birth at the local hospital.

Message withdrawn

My friend did a soundbite for the programme which was on right at the beginging and I didn't set the recorder on time .

What I found most sad about the programme is that Barnet has a good reputation in comparison to Chase Farm, I can't even begin to imagine what that's like.

I had a terrible time through my natural delivery (dd) and my section (ds).

Ime there was total lack of care, in my first birth i was left in labour on the postnatal ward (ON MY OWN) and they actually sent my dh and mum home! WTF, the cleaner answered the emergency buzzer to me after a 10 min wait and the whole stay was just horrendous, the MW's changed shifts 5 min before dd crowned therefore with the hustle bustle of shift change etc the MW didnt tell me to stop pushing so i ended up with a 3rd degree tear.

With my section all was good until my section was all over, so the aftercare was the prob. I was left without pain killers despite repeatedly requesting them, my pad wasn't changed for 8 hours despite me asking them.

The was 1 MW to 4 X section recoveries, and 4 bays (another 16 women) on natural del bays.

I've been hoping to have a home birth but recently have been wavering slightly. I hoped watching this programme would convince me of my choice and yet, seeing all the things that could go wrong I really am still not sure. I said to DP about it when he got home last night (after the show) and he said at least at home I should have 2. A good point. I was just so horrified when the m/w said of the woman labouring in the corridor in tears to 'get a life!'. I realise it was a throwaway comment, she was busy etc. But really not nice. I did feel as though the 'expert' they had there to review the evidence was expecting idealistic conditions though.

i gave birth in one of the hospitals featured - twice. it was the Royal Cornwall Hospital at truro.

Both times i had amazing care and was rarely left-although i do appreciate my labours were very easy and straightforward.

my friend was there on the day that baby Caitlin died, and that day and its events still stick in her mind.what they failed to mention was that they were short staffed anyway, but one midwife went out to get chinese, or so previous newspaper reports have said.

i was horrified to hear of what some women go through

I had DS at home last year. One of the main reasons was that I knew that they had to provide 2 midwives for a homebirth and that I could guarantee that I would have someone with me, not rushing off down the corridor as may happen in hospital. Many people told me how 'brave' (read: naive, poss crazy ) I was for opting for HB. The care I had during labour from the community midwives was fantastic.

However, post-natal care was very patchy. I had problems establishing breastfeeding, DS lost too much weight and was jaundiced. We ended up in the post-natal ward when he was 5 days old. The staff were again fantastic, BUT completely overstretched. I felt as some of the women in the programme did that if I asked for help that I was an inconvience, as there were so many other women and babies there. Buzzers were going off all the time.

I think the way the programme was set up made it less effective than it could have been...the 'expert' didn't seem to pick up on the actual major issues and was talking from quite a sentimental point of view, which kind of detracted from the serious things being illustrated.
She seemed lovely but was talking about the ideal too much, as FlossaLump says. Missed the point a bit.

Scorpio - although it sounds awful about a midwife going out for a chinese if they were short staffed this might have been the most time effective way of ensuring they get some food to keep going. Ie, one midwife fetching food for all instead of all midwifes taking an extra 10-15 minutes to fetch their own. A tired, thirsty and hungry midwife is even more likely to make mistakes.

I'm not defending all that happened that day, just want to put another view point forward.

Maewest, saying to people I would like a h/birth is a garenteed conversation stopper - and also usually ensures that I get gawped at. All the dissenting voices keep ringing around in my head and adds to the doubt.

I agree summerfruit that noone should have to undergo these conditions. It is totally unnacceptable and I too blame the government.

But I think we should clarify for the scared mums out there that the 1 in 5 are mums unhappy with their experience in hospital, not necessarily 1 in 5 have a horror story like the ones shown on panorama. I say this as someone who has no interest in defending the NHS, and actually both my experiences of childbirth could have been managed a lot better if maternity services had the resources they need.

It's really important that these issues are brought to light and the way the woman from Barnet tried to brush over the issues infuriated me.

I just hate the thought of pregnant women now being terrified of going into hospital when thankfully these cases are the minority.

But this is the problem. We now consider the things that Prof. Kirkham was talking about - one-to-one care in labour, environments conducive to normal birth, enough midwives to give decent postnatal care - as 'idealistic'.

And as long as we consider them ideals, we won't get them. We should be considering this stuff as our basic, fundamental right when we go into labour and afterwards. We should be yelling from the rooftops about this and demanding change, not saying 'Oh well, it's all a bit idealistic, isn't it?' Because then all the govt has to say is 'Yes, it is. Tough luck.'

Btw, she really is an expert. It doesn't need inverted commas

Snaf - didn't mean to suggest she wasn't a real one, I only used the commas because i'd forgotten her name and couldn't think what to call her!!
I also didn't mean that she was describing the things you mention as idealistic - I just meant that she came across as focussing on the sentimental side of it ( 'that's very sad' rather than 'that is unacceptable because' and dwelling a bit on how nice it would be if a woman was 'cherished' rather than focussing on the fact she wasn't even given basic, dignified care).
I thought she was a really nice woman and obvioulsy knew her stuff, no disrespect to her, but the programme could have chosen someone a little more vicious to get the point across, iyswim.