Anyone given birth recently in an NHS hospital? What’s this experience

[Janch13]

Currently pregnant with my 2nd child and feeling a bit anxious about the reported dire state of maternity care in NHS hospitals and looking for real life experiences as I am half considering a home birth (pregnancy is low risk and last birth was without complications or interventions).

What has triggered me to post is a TikTok I just watched, will share the link below but really not looking to scaremonger or make anyone else feel worried.

If you have given birth recently in an NHS hospital please share your experience and details of the care you received, was it adequate etc.

Thanks

vm.tiktok.com/ZMYL9g1dM/

Funny isn't it how the nhs and teacher threads always have 1 post from the op and then they never return...

There will be such variation between hospitals you need to research the Trusts local to you. The Trust I had my baby at includes various maternity safety papers in it’s Board of Directors’ papers which are published on their website. This meant I could see performance against maternity safety indicators - particularly related to the Ockenden Immediate and Essential Actions - and use that to make a decision about the birth. Have a look in the Board papers online and see if you can find data on eg proportion of women receiving 1-1 care, vacancy rate for midwives, training compliance for eg PROMPT training. I made a decision to have an elective c section as I could see my local Trust was short of staff and didn’t have a good record for providing 1-1 midwifery care during delivery. Your Trust might also publish information which helps you make an informed decision.

I am currently in early labour with my second baby so will have a very up to date answer soon!

My first DD was born in a central London NHS hospital in 2020. The birth was very long (four days) but the labour ward was fantastic, can’t praise them enough. As others have experienced the post-natal ward was horrific. The staff were doing their best but were hugely stretched and it showed - late medication rounds, no help with baby or breastfeeding (even for some of the women who’d had c sections), no way to get food or water if you weren’t mobile yet and, due to the pandemic, no partners allowed in to help. Women in tears constantly and stuck in a curtained off area with no natural light for the full 3 days I was there. In the end I discharged myself against medical advice just to get out of there.

This time I’m sticking with the NHS for the birth (at a different central London hospital) then hoping to transfer to the private wing for post-natal care if I have to stay in overnight. You can’t prebook the private room as, understandably, they prioritise those having their babies privately and need to keep them available for them so whether I get a private room will depend on availability once baby is actually born (really hoping that’s today!)

I have birth in November.. a VBAC and felt so incredibly supported and looked after. We needed the baby doctors on standby after birth as my daughter had some dodgy heartbeats so we were inpatients for a while as she needed tests. The midwives were incredible and so were the baby doctors. They went above and beyond to make sure I was ok as I was very emotional, sorting me a private room and getting my husband a bed so he could stay with me when I needed him to.

We had an emergency section a few months ago after a low risk pregnancy ended with big bleeds. The paramedics, triage staff, labour ward staff and the surgical team were AMAZING - what was a very scary and completely out of my control situation didn't feel half as bad because of it. I couldn't rate the staff high enough and they couldn't do enough for us. Postnatal ward night staff were a different story though (during both stays - we were readmitted the day after we were discharged). I hope the rest of your pregnancy goes well and that you get nice staff when it's time for baby to get here x

I had a baby a couple of months ago, second birth, everyone was fantastic. I had to have a very ‘medicalised’ birth because my first went so wrong so everyone knew they had to be quite hands on, but the quality of the care was excellent. Couldn’t fault it.

personally, there’s not a chance in hell I would ever consider a home birth but each to their own.

Had an emergency CS and I honestly cannot fault the staff. They saved mine and my baby's life. Plenty of staff but they were clearly very busy and sometimes took longer than expected when I rang the call button on post natal ward. But the level of care from the cleaners/catering staff up to the surgeons and neonatal team were brilliant. Got seen by a physio quickly and the breastfeeding support team when I asked. And this was in a hospital that was recently rated inadequate. They also let me stay in hospital longer than I would have thought, they didn't rush me home to get my bed back. We got a private room due to our circumstances. And they supplied me with everything my baby needed during my stay - bottles, sterilising equipment, clothes, blankets.

I had a very similar experience. Failed induction (which it later transpired wasn’t medically needed/advised anyway), 4 day labour & then an emergency c-section. All a million miles away from my birth preferences. Also ended up with a dural puncture from the late stage epidural which took multiple blood patch operations over the space of a week to be fixed, all while being separated from baby (as no space on maternity ward so I got shoved into a private room in gynae & forgotten about). The pain from the dural puncture was equal to labour as mine was a particularly bad one.

Bonus doses of sepsis, Covid & cutaneous Diptheria from being on the filthy ward. They forgot to feed me for days & I couldn’t get up due to the dural puncture - I had to lay completely flat. Community midwives no better; they left behind several stitches which later got infected. I also later found out that my family history (detailed at length during the booking appointment & recorded in my maternity notes) should have resulted in enhanced screening throughout pregnancy by the maternal cardiac unit. The midwives “forgot” to mention this or make the referral but the consultants also didn’t read my notes properly.

I wish I’d paid for a private midwife to be with me, for 1-on-1 care during the birth & post partum. We’d have gone fully private but no private maternity hospitals in our part of the South West sadly.

For those currently pregnant, get help organised (family, friends, paid for) in advance and lots of it; my mum had to move in for 6 weeks rather than the 1 week visit anticipated as the dural puncture meant I was away from my baby & husband, then I was so unwell with infections. Brief your birth partner & make them in charge of getting you fed & watered (packing snacks & knowing where they are, knowing where the dining room is & how to order/collect food for you). Set aside money now to pay for things to make life easier post birth (e.g. easy nutritious pre-made meals, super comfy nightwear & loungewear that won’t rub, extra help etc). Even if you don’t want a c-section, organise your home & bedroom as though you’re planning for one - move your own belongings & baby gear around so no reaching up or bending down for stuff, everything at eye height & easily grabbable from bed. Just in case.

Basically, plan for the very worst case scenario & that way you’ll be much better prepped if things don’t go to plan. We’d fallen into the trap of thinking we could hypnobirth our way into a wholly positive birth experience but I wish I’d been more pragmatic & seriously considered other outcomes ahead of time.

Will add, my son is now 6 months old and a complete joy. I adore him and he’s worth every second of pain, discomfort and stress involved in the process of getting him here.

1 year old and it was fine, postnatal had clear staffing issues like they told me they would remove my cannula at 11pm and no one came until my husband arrived at 9am and said he would do it himself (he is trained). I had induction and EMCS and was really well cared for. Chosen the same hospital for this baby too as its my closest. Does help I feel confident in my husbands medical knowledge and him knowing what I need/to ask for/when care is not good enough.

When I called up at 4.30am I was told they were short staffed and couldn't admit me. Their divert hospital, 45minutes away, was also full and couldn't take me.

They said I could come in to get pain killers and they examined me at the same time, but only cos I insisted on it.

As I was 4cm I was told they could call hospitals further afield to see who could take me (all of which would have been 1-2 hours drive). Or I could go home, come back at 7am when they'd have more staff and if things progressed quickly then call an ambulance.

I went home, and my god did I wish I had gas and air feather than just whatever tablets they gave me. Made it back to the hospital dead on 7am. But didn't make it as far as the labour suite, and had the baby in the corridor.

Staff who came rushing to help me were great though. And all in all it wasn't actually a bad experience, yes it was more painful, but labouring at home had other perks.

If I was to do it again I'd register for a home birth. Cos you can change your mind at any time, and get allocated a midwife earlier in labour.

Not the same thing, but we recently had an ambulance called for my Mum, it arrived in under 10 minutes.
We’d believed all the headlines and were settling in for an all-nighter.
The headlines are extremes, still lots and lots of good stuff going on out there.

It all depend how busy ward is on particular day. As previously mentioned if there are complications you are bounced back to NHS hospital anyway and it can be quite stressful at last moment. With my first I was placed in delievery room right away then I was in shared ward afterwards, can't really complain as everything went well. Obviously midwifes keep rotating between rooms, it's not like they will babysit you, keep checking on you and obviously you get full attention in final stage of labour. With my second, different hospital, it was busy night, they placed me on waiting ward, as my waters broke I got paralyzed and noone was answering emergency button, my partner had to go and search for someone as waiting room was kind of empty and noone around. When midwife finally came my baby head was already coming, they had to drag me on wheelchair and run across corridors to delievery room like mad hatters🤣. Luckily labour went smoothly and was given single room afterwards. Stayed extra night as baby came out a bit red, they had to run tests. I would still advise to choose NHS, preferably larger university teaching hospital. I never once considered home birth as I wanted to be closely monitored and have acces to emergency help if something went wrong.

Thanks for all the responses, really reassuring as most of the recent ones are positive. I am planning on delivering at Frimley Park hospital which is where I had my first (and had a great experience - but this was pre covid, hence my concern that the levels of care provided might have declined)

Thanks everyone for sharing experiences and for the suggestion of checking the CQC website, I wasn’t aware of this so thanks!

Sending support and love to those that had traumatic or negative experiences, it really is terrible to have that birth experience robbed of you and of course so scary for either you or your baby or both to be at any kind of risk.

I had DD2 in October 2022.

I was supposed to give birth at my nearest hospital (A) but I needed a sooner induction and they had no slots so I had to go to the next hospital (B) 30 minutes away.
They started the induction and then when it was time to break my waters there were no beds on labour ward because ladies from hospital A were being sent to hospital B due to A being full.
After a 6 hour wait I was finally moved to labour ward. The care was fantastic and I felt very safe. It was a high risk pregnancy and I was monitored properly and they acted fast when DD's heart rate was too high. They ended up closing labour ward again to new admissions during the night because there were only 2 midwives on shift so there was only 2 women (including me).

I didn't stay on the postnatal ward, I left labour ward 8 hours after delivery. They let me stay an extra 2 hours because they weren't busy, otherwise I would have had to leave at 6am, after 6 hours, or move to postnatal ward.

Very helpful post, thank you.

May I ask when and where your terrible experience was?

I have no worries about the standard of medical care I’ll get during my c section.

I am incredibly scared of the lack of nursing or medical care available after birth.

St Michael’s hospital, 6-ish months ago. We’d assumed that choosing THE major maternity hospital for the area would smooth the path but I don’t think it did.

Another tip - the midwives will be desperate to discharge you from their services post-birth (or at least mine were). They were visibly miffed that I ended up under their care for so long due to the repeated infections and missed stitches. You don’t have to agree to being discharged out of their care.

Had 2 babies in last 3 years. Care before and during labour and birth I was very happy with.
Care afterwards was appalling. Was in for 3 days with my 2nd, and it was honestly traumatic, and really so little care there was really no point being there. It's exhausting and noisy, nobody comes when you buzz, nobody ever knows what's going on or what the plan is (there wasn't one). I was very happy to be discharged a few hours after dc3.

Baby 1: (child known to have additional medical needs) - 3 day induction due to lack of space on labour ward. Care poor. Labour itself - care was excellent. EMCS. Neonatal care of baby in NICU was good. My aftercare and support to be with my baby was non existent. Left without pain relief, fluids etc etc. Partner was away sleeping as needed to drive 5 miles away to specialist hospital where DS1 was being sent. My care was atrocious.

Baby 2. Another drawn out induction due to no space on Labour ward but refusal to let me go home. Labour itself also dreadful…. Epidural leaked and no one would believe it hadn’t worked, partner had to clean and change soiled bedding as no midwife available, delays in decision about EMCS which was clearly needed. Theatre experience for EMCS was fine. Aftercare not great again but as my partner could be with me and I had my baby who was fit and well, it was immeasurable better.

10 and 12 years ago. Different hospitals.

I actually feel quite positive solely due to how brilliant the MWs were, but writing it down actually doesn't sound good.... I will say they were ON IT for any complications, incredibly attentive. Almost too much for my liking as despite their insistence I refused an induction.

Had DC in August, the maternity department was overwhelmed and I really felt for them, resources were in short supply. I'd estimate 4-5 other midwives interrupted my short labour looking to borrow medical kit from the room, as they didn't have enough to go round. They closed admissions after I arrived until the next day, a mum I know was turned away and had to travel further.

I was kept in triage for 5 hours due to bed shortages. Half of that time was spent in reception clinging to DH during contractions or running to the loo to vomit. By the time I had a private room I was 10cm, promised pain killers and anti-sickness drugs never arrived. I only had 30 minutes of gas and air in the end after throwing up my own paracetamol repeatedly.

As I said the MWs I had were wonderful, the birth itself was great, as was immediate aftercare. But their hands were tied in terms of time and resources. I found the ward stressful as they were incredibly busy and the other mums all seemed to be struggling after traumatic births.

Home care has been intermittent, similar to others I've had home appointments cancelled last minute and had to travel. I also shared with my HV I was heavily anxious and she admitted I could do with support but she was leaving the job the next day, so could I just sort it out myself!

OP I’m not sure if home birth would be an option, my local hospital clearly says home births available but may not always be available if someone else is already having a home birth or if ANY of the services are on divert (for context their MLU has been closed 90% of the time due to shortage of MWs so I wouldn’t fancy my chances of getting a HB)