Dispatches - Undercover Mother

[Naetha]

Did anyone else here watch this? It terrified the life out of me, but I felt I ought to know what I was going in for,

The question is, is the post-natal hospital care really as bad as it appeared in that programme? The communication between midwives and patient was appalling - not only jumbled up gibberish, but also treating the mother like she's an imbecile, and frankly a pain in the arse.

Please give me some positive comments about hospitals!

And just because you were lucky enough to have a reasonable experience (you are in the minority from what I can see), I don't think it is fair to minimise the damage done to others who had truly shocking expericences. As was highlighted in the program, being treated with such lack of empathy and respect when you are vulnerable after just giving birth (and almost losing the baby in my case) can have a truly devastating and long lasting effect. ok, noone died in the end, I got over it eventually, I'm having another baby. But it did overshadow the birth of my first child, and was unecessary.

But there will always be bad experiences and good experiences and clearly there just aren't resources for it to be perfect.

If anything comes out of this programme I hope it is that the powers that be notice that more needs to be done.

I have a friend who when she had her baby was really pleased that the midwives took the baby off to give her some rest whereas that would have really upset me and I reckon I would catergorically be calling it a bad experience if they even tried. They will never be able to please everyone all of the time.

The system is far from perfect, but more resources and training is what is needed. For everyone involved, consultants, midwives, health care staff and everyone involved.

Mimicakey, the point is not that she had someone to help her (she did) but she is exposing the fact that the midwives do not routinely ensure that a post cs woman has mobilised after surgery. This means the women who don't know that they should mobilise are not mobilising and therefore running the risk of DVT.

They were firefighting, not engaging in important routine care. This may be because they are too busy but I got the impression from my own experience that they also have a culture of seeing the mother as an interruption and a nuisance.

As for the niceties like helping with BF etc....

Sorry but I have to agree with nightshade and Megbusset in that i thought the journalist over-sensationalised this.

She actually said i thought i was meant to get up after 8 hours so why did she not ask the midwives about this instead of lying there for 24 hours?? She also said that her care on the labour/delivery ward was excellent but this aspect of her birth was about 5 min ofthe programme.

Also when she was worried about the baby coughing up gunk she was given the correct explanation about this, although it was by someone who's English wasn't very BBC...but does this matter...she was given the correct info.

Yes she did have to wait to see the Paed but as there wasnt anything wrong with the baby i doubt she was top of the list...and rightly so in my opinion. She actually ended up staying in 24hrs longer than necessary but no-one in the hospital was funny about this with her...she asked for extra support (seeing Paed again) and got it form what i could see.

I agree that you do feel vulnerable after giving birth and yes it would be lovely to be waited on hand and foot but that's hardly realistic is it? She did get breakfast when she asked and she also said they'd brought her toast after the op so wasnt like she was starved.

I think there is obviously a genuine issue about maternity services being under-resourced but this documentry did little to add to the debate.

I don't think anyone expects or is asking for perfection. But I don't think it is unreasonable to expect that you and your babies life won't be put in danger and that you will be treated with some degree of professionalism and respect.

Both this and the Panoram program showed 2 or 3 cases where babies had died unecessarily due directly or indirectly to the lack of resourcing issue. I do not think that is acceptable in this country. It makes me angry that it is still going on.

I think that over all the programme did blow things up just because of the nature of the way it was presented but having had a friend who had been through a very similar experience though with an emergency c section after 2 days of labour made me realise that little bit of guidance from a qualified person makes all the difference. Plus miscommunication between the staff seems to be a really major problem. They are just too stretched to concentrate. Also my friend didn't have anything to eat during her 2 day labour then didn't get given anything in hospital, she was so knackered and couldn't move it was a major problem, which no one offered to help her with.

I had a home birth with NHS midwives which was great, can't fault them.

Nail on the head thehairybabysmum! The programme did nothing to further the issue.

She only knew there was nothing wrong with her baby when the paediatrician confirmed it. Until then she was waiting to find out if he did indeed have jaundice which is what one of the midwives thought.

Her point was she could have gone home if the paediatrician had come the day before to check out the jaundice. They couldn't let her home until he had ruled out jaundice...

She wasn't being neurotic - she was told it could be jaundice and she had to wait for the paed to see it and confirm or otherwise.

Just to say I think this is polarising.

The programme did not show any great problems - but it did not show great care either. And great care should not be seen as something exceptional. It should be perfectly achieveable.

It takes a little more thought and a little more engagement.

I think the program did raise an interesting point about stillbirths. The research presented indicated that many might not be enexplained as is usually the post-mortem finding but that stretched antenatal care is not picking up growth-restricted babies and hence more unecessary deaths.

And do you really think it was appropriate when she asked for breakfast that one of the midwives snapped abck at her I've already told you when she hadn't? And do you think one piece of toast in 24 hours is acceptable and that you should have to wait for over an hour to be given breakfast because you can't move, are on your own and nobody seems to realise that you are a C section patient? I don't. I know she got off lightly, believe me I've experienced far worse, but it still indicates a problem surely?

And the point surely is that it shouldn't be such a lottery - everyone should expect a reasonable degree of care not have this polarisation where some people have a positive experience, some like the journo have slightly shoddy care and others have truly shocking experiences. That is not the sign of a well run organisation.

Anyway, i think we all agree that the resourcing issue is what need to be addressed.

I chose to have my last 2 babes at home. You get much better care there. I'd advise anyone who can to do the same.

fgs...
how many people have visitors to hospital who do not bring them food????

i had enough to feed an army!!

can't believe that wet hubby of hers didn,t have the forsight to pack a picnic. we have always known that hospital food is crap.

it doesn't take an undercover programme to tell us that.

in other countries, you don,t even get food, it's down to your relatives to feed you.

and honestly, if she was that bloody starving, she wouldn,t have asked for a croissant!!!!

I have to be honest I dont know too much about why their is not enough resources put into this area, I just know that it is clearly the problem.

I have to be honest I got nothing to eat for hours after I had my baby and I had no idea where i supposed to get breakfast from and I had to go all the way to the midwife station and ask - and by this time most of it was gone.

My question to you ladies is this, seeing as we have all posted it is clearly something we all feel strongly about, what can WE do about it, how can we contribute to making it better for us next time and for other people.

i had the most amazing mw deliver my dd she kept me calm was encouraaging even came to see us the next day.

but the after care was shocking!
i was left in bed despite me buzzing to go to the toilet (kept passing out was told to buzz not get up by myself)
my baby was left in my bed as i couldnt get to end of the bed to put her in the cot they had pushed to the foot of the bed.
i was only shown one positon to breast feed in.
i was not given any breakfast or dinner as was getting washed and asleep. (had dd at 12.51 so no sleep)
i was woken up to see if i was going to bath my baby was not offered again,
i did not enjoy the being in hospital afterwards i asked to go home was told would be seen am from peadiatritian, but pm was still not seen.
my baby's alarme tag kept coming off was told it didnt matter as i was going later, i had to wait till my visitors came to go toilet get dressed because anyone could have taken my baby cause her tag was off.
i am glad i had nice mw deliver my baby cause that was important to me.

Nightshade you were lucky. That's not the point though. You shouldn't HAVE to bring your own food fgs!!!!

mixedmamma

although i have not had one (yet), i really do believe that taking the medical aspect out of childbirth is the ONLY way to mormalise it again, empower women and bring expectations back to a level.

why do we continue to believe that white coats have a better understanding of nature than nature itself.

this would lessen resources leaving medical intervention free for those who really need it.

haven't had one yet, (a homebirth) is what i mean!!

mixedmama - great post. This is something I have been thinking a lot about - how we can do something to make it better. All I have managed to do is join AIMS - the association for improvement in maternity services:

www.aims.org.uk/

Any other suggestions welcome.

i was told to pack food for my delivery (had i had a normal one), it's in all the magazines to put snacks in your hospital bag...not rocket science

When I was giving birth last time the policy was to not allow you to eat in labour - hopefully this has now changed as it is ludicrous. I don't think you are being very fair about the food - why should she have to make her own arrangements when everyone around her was getting breakfast? The point she was making was not about the food but about the fact that none of the staff seemed to be aware of the fact that there was a c section woman in that bed that couldn't get up to get her own breakfast. Why should she not be entitled to a breakfast like everyone else?

Believe me, I am fully aware that you might have to do everything yourself - I had to break into the cupboard where the supplies were kept to get a breast pump as this was the only way to try and breastfeed without any help after waiting 2 hours for someone to appear at the nursing station to open the cupboard. Equally with the food I got my partner to bring in takeways - I would have gone out myself to get them if my baby had not been in an incubator and if anyone had bothered to sort out the excessive bleeding and give me some towels (yes I bought my own but used both packets the first night).

I really think that if you are not feeling any empathy or sympathy with this program or other posters then you did not experience how bad post natal care can be, in busy London hospitals at least.

a system which supports home birth for all those who have no medical need nor socioeconomic need of a stay in hospital would be a good start.

well bringing your own food is one way around it but should be unnecessary. This is not the Sudan fgs. I had an emergency admission so did not have any food with me.

Why are we making excuses here? It's not normal to bring in your own food wherever I have lived (France, Switzerland, Belgium). I would be embarrassed to tell anyone from those countries what happens here. It's a hospital. Their job is to care for you. That includes food. Yes you can find ways round it but you shouldn't have to. The midwives should be proud of the service they offer.

My friend who had a baby by planned caesarean due to the baby's pre-diagnosed life-threatening medical condition (baby whipped straight onto ventilator etc) was told (in a formal letter from the hospital) to bring in Flash and Marigolds so she could clean the shower before she used it. Not acceptable.

Clean the shower.... that is abissmal.

I was told to bring pillows as they had a shortage.

I think everyone does have empathy just trying to see the way forward.

not acceptable but fact.
why are we continuing to view the raising of standards of hospitals as the only way to improving the birth experience.

if the journo in question had taken the homebirth slant, then maybe she would have had some credibility in my eyes, but as is, all she did was continue to disempower herself and feed into the machine.