Talk to CQC about your maternity care experiences and you could win a £200 Love2Shop voucher. NOW CLOSED!

[AngelieMumsnet]

We’re working with CQC (Care Quality Commission), who would like to encourage more women to share their experiences of maternity care.

Here’s a video of a few Mumsnetters talking about their experiences of maternity care:

CQC say "We are the independent health and social care regulator in England. CQC inspect and rate maternity services, including antenatal services, pregnancy units, maternity assessment centres, labour wards, postnatal services and neonatal services.

There are nearly 700,000 live births each year in England, and having a baby is the most common reason for a hospital admission. Our 2015 Maternity Survey found that most expectant and new mothers are experiencing better maternity care when compared to the results from previous years, however, we know that know women will have had varied personal experiences.

If you are pregnant or recently used maternity services, we want you to tell us about the care you are receiving, good or bad. Our inspectors can’t be everywhere at once and your information will help us decide when, where and what service to inspect. By telling us about your experiences, you could stop poor care happening to someone else.

We want to hear whether you think your care is safe, effective, and caring. For example:

• You should feel that you are fully supported by staff to make informed decisions
• You should be able to ask questions if you don’t understand what is happening
• Staff should take all practical steps to make sure you receive the support you need to cope emotionally with your care"

Please share your stories of maternity care on this thread. Whatever your experience, CQC would love to hear about it

Everyone who adds a comment to this thread will be entered in to a prize draw where one winner will receive a £200 Love2shop voucher*.

Thanks & good luck,
MNHQ

PS: CQC will also be asking women to share their maternity care feedback on Twitter (@carequalitycomm) from the 15 February using the hashtag #YourMaternityCare. CQC want to hear about your experiences, so please tweet them using the hashtag.

• provided by MNHQ

I gave birth in hospital last summer.
I'm sure there were good medical reasons why it was a very medicalised birth. One thing I found hard was the pressure to accept more pain relief when the oxytocin drip was so awful. The midwife was impatient with me while trying to decide between diamorphine and pethidine. I had no idea what the implications of this decision were, and she gave me very little information when I was already in a huge amout of pain, and expected me to be able to think it through. I think the side effects were quite long lasting, and made the first few days more difficult physically and emotionally.

One good thing was the post-natal care. The midwives were warm and caring and I was given all the help I needed. I feared there may be other people's partners staying on the ward, so it was,a relief when they were not.

I found my maternal care quite a positive experience. There were a couple of strict midwives but i didn't mind that to be honest. I liked that there were straight to the point.

The only thing that was disappointing was that they didn't help me with bathing my baby and i was clueless where everything was so i didn't want to be a pain harassing them, so i left it until we left, which was not ideal! xx

All great so far, have had lots of lovely and helpful impartial help and advice.

My experience was really good from the first meeting with the GP to the follow-up meetings with the health visitor. The hospital midwives were very attentive and friendly. The next fews days after the birth were quite scary for me but the hospital staff made it all easy and they were all very helpful. At home the health visitor would visit regularly and I had family and friend support. Overall I cannot complain about the service and care I received.

i was not very impressed with my hosp stay, the stay was friendly but very short staffed, i had no offer of help with feeding with a baby with severe tongue-tie and sent home without newborn check.

I'm 35 weeks with DC2, hoping for a birth in a standalone mlu, but DC1 had other ideas and we ended up at the hospital's labour ward. That was 2012 and whilst the birth was 'OK' the aftercare was shocking. Although probably out of scope now.

This time round I have the same, lovely, community midwife as I had last time. She was also working the day DS was born and she was my delivery midwife (which I'm sure contributed to what might have been a pretty scary birth being fairly calm). My midwife appointments are at a local community hospital (free parking :)) and have all been arranged at convenient times, which is really handy. I've also been able to contact the standalone mlu eg getting my gestational diabetes results on New Year's Day, and hiring a tens machine from them.

I've noticed an improvement in the notes - now all in a file and bound together rather than the scrappy bits I had last time. The quality of information in them has also improved (unlike the health visitor pack: health visitor information full of typos, out of date calendars of events, and delivered by a patronising hv doesn't give me any more faith in the service than I had last time).

I was also very impressed by the birth afterthoughts service; a specialist midwife came to my house, and went through all my notes. She went through, and sympathised with, all my issues with post natal care, including helping me with strategies to stop the same thing happening again like the shift pattern of the particular midwife I never want to see again. Between this, and the community midwife (I do hope I manage to synch labour and her shifts again!) I do feel as prepared as I can be...

My experience in labour was awful. Beyond awful. The hospital was so busy that I was left entirely on my own by the midwife, despite arriving in a very distressed state (due to other stuff going on in my life). I needed an emcs but no theatre was free... The list goes on and on. It felt like a 3rd world experience.

Post natally though I had really good care and support. But it was too little too late as the birth experience left me with PTSD which has cost the NHS far more to treat than adequate maternity care would have cost them!

Two completely different experiences. Baby 1 I was in labour for 40 long painful hours. I started off in a midwife led unit and tried the birthing pool while I was there. Then I transferred to a normal labour and delivery ward. I had several different midwives in the time it took and mostly they were great, apart from the one who didn't twig that when I'd had an epidural I'd also need a catheter and couldn't understand why I was complaining about pain despite an epidural. 2 litres of urine in your bladder does that! I was in the maternity ward for one night. Had no help from any of the staff in trying to breastfeed or anything else. Left the next day feeling bewildered and caused myself a massive breast abscess that required hospitalisation to sort out.

Baby 2 was a much quicker delivery. Only in the midwife led unit. Also used the birthing pool. We were still stirring in the water when he was born still in his sac. The midwife was lovely. I was transferred to the maternity ward where I made a point of saying that I was staying until I was confidently breastfeeding. There was one nurse who was an angel and really helped but the others were vile miserable old bats who told me my boobs were too big and I should just use formula. Thanks to my angel I breastfed for 18 months.

I was personally lucky to have a really old fashioned traditional midwife (who still used an ear horn) She was more like a friend than a midwife but was also very strict with me :) - I probably needed that though! ha ha - I have had many experiences since as a birth partner and foster carer and I have to say mostly I have found the care to be excellent!

I had fantastic care all through each of my pregnancies. Luckily each birth was straightforward, the midwives were great, very reassuring. My care was in a consultant led maternity unit. Unfortunately, the local health authority has downgraded it so there is now no consultant, also emergencies now have to travel an hour away. Penny pinching is going to cost the lives of mothers and babies.

I had an awful experience with my last baby. Gave birth in a hospital and simply felt in the way. I had a midwife who was in her 40's and she was so impatient with me. Was my third child and made it very clear that as i'd had two before i should just shut up and get on with it. Was given no pain relief at all. I tried to hold her hand with contractions that were very painful. She pulled her hand free and told me off saying i was hurting her. I felt awful and would never give birth in a hospital again.

I had a fantastic midwife, I wasn't driving at the time and stayed out in the country, she made a point of visiting me so I didn't have the hassle of finding a way in to the health centre, she was very professional but I felt like she was a friend when she was in my home, I enjoyed her company!
I felt at ease asking her questions

I was quite lucky with my care on the first but the second my midwife was rubbish and I had to request a second opinion several times.

All the staff at Arrowe Park Hospital were lovely, but so overstretched that they weren't able to give me as much of their time as I really needed to support me and help me with my new baby. I was lucky to have family there to help me as I could barely move for the first day or so.

I didn't have the best of care during and after labour at Princess Anne Hospital, Southampton last year. My daughter was back to back and very wedged in my pelvis, but no one realised until the midwife switchover when the new midwife realised her heart rate had been dropping for sometime - she called a doctor in straight away and I was subsequently rushed to theatre for an emergency C-Section. The midwives had let me get to 10cm dilated and let my babies heart rate drop several times, without noticing something was wrong. Thankfully the new midwife realised, just as it was time to start pushing and this could have caused damage to my baby. When she was born she even had to have an X Ray on her head, as it had been so squashed in my pelvis. I had awful post natal care - it has pretty much traumatised me! I suffer from anxiety, and this was all over my notes. I paid for a private room and my husband was sent home - i really needed him. I was stuck in the room after having a C section, with no help whatsoever. It was my first baby and I felt so alone. My baby girl fed constantly for 4 hours, till my nipples were bleeding and blistered. I still got no help, and even after ringing for help - no one ended up coming. This completely put me off breast feeding, I just couldn't carry on. I was also only offered paracetamol and ibuprofen following a C Section - when I now know they could have given me stinger pain relief. I found my experience to be pretty traumatic, and although it hasn't put me off having another baby, i'm pretty scared for next time.

I was very happy with all staff at the Worcester hospital, where I gave birth twice. Everyone was always caring and I never felt rushed.

I haven't a bad word to say about the care I received when in labour the midwives were both outstanding and made my first labour experience perfect. After care was brilliant too, I felt supported and at ease!

The care during the labour process was amazing. As others have said I didn't like the aftercare. With DD I had to stay in overnight and it was horrible, I kept asking for help with breastfeeding as she wouldn't settle - the help was a midwife grabbed my boob, shoved it in her mouth and walked away. It was the incredibly isolating and upsetting - my husband was told he had to leave and I was in tears after several hours of a none stop screaming child and no help. Second time round with DS I insisted on being discharged straight from labour ward, much better! Midwives do an amazing job, but I do think the post-natal care need to be looked at

I'm nearly 33 weeks pregnant with my first and so far my antenatal care has been totally satisfactory. Not amazing but given the NHS is operating on a stretched shoestring certainly much more than adequate. I will be delivering in Hinchinbrooke hospital and had a great tour of the maternity unit a few weeks ago. Really put my mind at rest and feel like I will be in safe, and comfortable care.

I had a generally good experience. Certainly I thought the staff all had the interests of the mums and babies at heart. One thing I keep seeing and hearing about though is the "it'll be ages yet" attitude. I guess a lot of mums-to-be are convinced they are about to deliver days or weeks ahead of time and it must be tiring as a midwife dealing with that time after time. But I know so many mums who were told "just have a bath / cup of tea, it'll be days yet" and the baby was there minutes later with no midwife involvement. How is it so common??

My son arrived in a big hurry and although he was delivered in the hospital it was a close run thing. Almost before I'd even got my breath back all the staff were asking if we were planning another one, and if so, never mind all the advice about "don't come until you're getting 2 contractions in a 10 minute period - at your first contraction, come straight in next time!"

I was left really to my own devices, was never bothered most of the time was a drop in service if you wanted to see someone but was never really obliged to go.

i work on a maternity ward and i can say hand on heart we give each and every lady who is in anti natal or post natal the best care she and her family could wish for . and any question however daft is fine i ensure they are at ease , comfortable and safe while in my care and support the whole family with the babys best intrests in mind supporting new mams with parental skills, breast feeding support and checking glucose levels urine and dietry intake to arranging follow up midwife visits once they leave hospital.
the care starts from the minute each lady finds out they are pregnant , through clinic and scans and arranging visits to theatre and around the ward and birthing pool so when the time comes they are as relaxed and in control as possible xxx

I had a planned home birth. But felt very well attended to and felt safe at all times.

I didn't feel that I was emotionally supported in either pregnancy. They took care of me physically but wanted me out as quickly as possible at each appointment. I think this is a sign of over worked midwives perhaps. The worst was with my son when I asked if the midwife would check his heart beat at my 16 week appointment. All of my friends countrywide has this done (I was on the mse pregnancy thread) but she refused and said they (Trafford) didn't do it at that appointment. She was very abrupt and I cried all the way home. I was really concerned and worried and it would have given me great peace of mind.

My midwife is fantastic. She's s lovely person, very friendly and very sensible. I have complete confidence in her was worried as was my first child but with the help of the midwife i soon begining to calm down and enjoy this special moment in my life