My wife recently gave birth to our little one.
There were several instances which I thought were off and didn't seem quite right.
My wife had a very long first stage of labour, and couldn't handle the pain at home. I brought her into the triage and she was admitted onto the maternity ward. Throughout the 16 hours before she was 4cm dilated, the contractions were absolute agony for her. The midwives/doctors refused to give her gas and air (or an epidural) before she was 4cm dilated. All they gave her was an injection of Pethidine every 4-6 hours (which didn't help much).
In desperation, my wife begged for a c-section. The midwife called in the doctor, who said that it was possible for her to have a c-section but they wouldn't be able to do it until the following day (this was around 8PM), and by that time she would've "given birth naturally so it's best to stick with the natural birth".
Once my wife was 4cm dilated and finally moved to the delivery suite and had the epidural, she was okay. Fast forward many hours and the midwife performed an examination, and then went to get the senior midwife to check something. The senior midwife then called in a doctor. I overheard their conversation (which they didn't know I could hear), and I heard them talking about how they didn't know when her waters had broke, scrutinising a log that a previous midwife had made about it. My wife wasn't told this, but was told that her temperature was rising, the baby's heart rate was rising and that it's recommended that she goes into theatre for an emergency c-section. This was performed.
Fast forward to day 2 on the ward post delivery. The doctor doing the morning rounds informed my wife that as her temperature had spiked throughout the night, it's recommended that she stayed in on IV antibiotics. My wife started crying and the doctor said "well, this isn't a prison. You can self discharge". I asked the doctor whether the infection could've been caused by the fact that the midwives lost track of when her waters had broken. The doctor seemed a bit sheepish and said that she "saw that in her notes, and she will raise it" (whatever that means). The doctor then said to me "I will speak to the registrar, you seem like a responsible man, she can probably go home today on oral antibiotics and you can monitor her temperature at home". I told the doctor that I don't need to be placated, if she needs to stay in, she stays in. Anyway, the doctor said it would be fine. Before my wife was discharged, the same doctor asked to look at her c-section wound. She said "why has nobody taken off the dressing?". My wife and I thought it was a padded dressing, but it turns out there was severe swelling under it. It looked like she was wearing a bumbag. She was still discharged on oral antibiotics. After 5 hours of being home, her temperature reached 38.9 and I brought her back to the hospital.
After two days, she had to have another surgery. They reopened the wound and cleared out all of the blood clots. What followed was 8 days of IV antibiotics for 24 hours, no temperature, step down to oral antibiotics and her temperature spiked until finally her temperature was under control on oral antibiotics. There was one instance where a midwife almost overdosed her on Co-Dydramol (2 doses within 1 hour).
She was then finally discharged.
Do you think this warrants a complaint?