Share your maternity care experiences with CQC - £300 voucher to be won! NOW CLOSED

[EllieMumsnet]

We are working with CQC (Care Quality Commission), who through a current campaign #yourbirthplan would like to make the public more aware of their inspection reports and ratings which can help women make informed decisions about where they give birth. With this aim in mind, they would like to hear your experiences of maternity care.

Here’s what CQC have to say: ‘’While women may have the choice to have their baby at home, in a midwife led unit or in hospital – we know that many are not aware. We believe that all women should be fully informed about the options they have regarding their choices over where they give birth – it is important that expectant parents are fully informed about the options they have available to them throughout their pregnancy and understand the benefits and potential risks of any choice they make – be this at home, hospital or birth centre.

There are multiple sources of information to help make a decision and our aim is to raise awareness including our inspection reports and ratings – as one of these sources, to help ensure they are fully informed of all the options available to them and have the best possible birth experience.”

Perhaps you want to share your experience of maternity care in hospital? Maybe you gave birth at home or in a midwife led unit? Or perhaps you want to tell us about your experience of how you chose where you gave birth?

Whatever your experiences are, share them on the thread below and everyone who comments will be entered into a prize draw, where one lucky winner will win a £300 voucher of their choice (from a list).

Thanks and good luck
MNHQ

Standard Insight T&Cs apply

The CQC is responsible for inspecting all hospitals, including private hospitals, GP practice, dentists, care homes and home care in England. Its maternity service inspections include all services for women that relate to pregnancy, including ante and post-natal services, labour wards, birth centres or units and theatres providing obstetric related surgery.

Each inspection answers five key questions: Is the service safe? Is it effective? Are the staff caring and responsive to people’s needs and is the service well led?

I had a pretty bad experience giving birth. I was in labour for 56 hours & had an epidural. When I had been in labour for a bit "too long" the midwife suggested I try to lie on my side as that may speed things up.

As I turned over, the pain ripped through me & I cried out & threw up with the pain.

The midwife suggested I was making a fuss about nothing as I had an epidural. I told her that I could feel everything. She told me not to be so silly & touched my stomach. She asked if I could feel her hand, I said yes. She said that's impossible & that was the end of that.

In the end I was rushed down for a probable C section. I was scared out of my wits that I was going to be cut open & be able to feel everything.

The doctor in charge said she would like to give me one more try with the help on a ventouse. I pushed so hard & managed to get my son out without the C section.

In later years I have found out that I suffer from hyper sensitivity. Normal pain killers simply do not work on me & although that is not common, it is not rare & the medical staff should have taken me seriously when I told them I could feel everything.

I was really lucky, my birth went pretty smoothly. The midwives were all friendly and helpful - giving me support and encouragement all the way!

Truly Awful
I had fantastic care before my baby was born by the community midwifes,but my care when admitted to hospital was awful.
I was admitted as had Pre Eclampsia my waters had broken but was very unwell. I was admitted at 2pm waters had broken at 6am i was admitted onto the ward where i was monitored every hour,each midwife i saw said they didnt know what the plan for me was. During the time of being monitored my babys heart rate was dropping quite dramatically i was asked to drink hot chocolate to "liven" him up. I was then left until next hour they then decided his rate was fine,i had no contractions but high end pre eclampsia symptoms so was feeling quite rubbish. At 2pm the following day i was admitted onto labour ward to be induced i endured a rough handed doctor breaking my waters that made me bleed quite alot and a midwife that called me an idiot. I was put on a high dose of Syntocin and left to contract,my midwife advised me she had 4 other high needs ladies to deal with so id habe to wait. I had an epidural placed a few hours later which took 50 minutes to administer i couldnt see and felt like i would vomit and pass out i voiced this to my midwife who advised me to be sick on my feet. The epidural was great once in and had respite for an hour or so but then required a top up. I was then swelling fast and projectile vomitting,i was examined and told i was 3.5cm dilated the following morning,my babies heart rate was dropping again and bp was v high. I was told they would allow me to continue this way for 17 more hours to which i declined but was "prepped" that i would have to argue my case,i had a c section and my babies APGAR was 3,i then had strep b and a deep uterine inf so was in hosp 10 days. I shall never have a second child for many reasons but my care being a prevelant reason. There are many things my partner has told me that i did not remember.

We had both of our children at Gloucester royal. I found once I got past the triage ward the care was brilliant. With my second I was sent to triage from the out of hours GP with a kidney infection and dehydration and it was 6 hours before they put fluids up. The maternity ward and staff for both C sections were wonderful but with both pregnancies apart from a few very good midwives we always felt like an inconvenience in triage and they made me feel like I wasn’t ever poorly enough to be there.

Firstly, The community midwifery care in my area was excellent. The labour ward midwifery care (once initiated was also excellent and her care overnight for me and my son undoubtly saved us)

My overall experience however, well I will not return to the same hospital.

Which is a shame given that I work in the trust of that hospital and am one of its employees.

I however felt that I was constantly belittled and passed over, nothing was explained and introductions were swift and vague.

When I told them I was a medical professional within the same trust I felt that this put me in a worst position, made me into "that patient"...aka the troublemaker. This was not at all the case.

The good to have come out of my experience is that being on the other side as the patient has made me reflect on my own practice and I will continue to pit my patients first at all costs.

Because at the end of the day, as a patient we are not looking to make trouble or make a fuss or be difficult,

We are just scared and need support and explanation.

we need an emergency section when my son got stuck, the hospital staff were amazing with us, professionalism of the highest order

We only have the choice of 1 hospital or a homebirth here, and I knew for sure I didn't want a homebirth so hospital it was. I was told that they only had 1 room available for a waterbirth so I could use it if it was free when I needed it, but again I was happy to have a regular birth in the labour ward/delivery suite at our local hospital. The midwives were amazing, for all 3 births which were all very different, and I wouldn't hesitate to use the same hospital again.

I didn't have a choice as I had a high risk pregnancy and consultant led birth. It was a long and complicated labour and had I not been in hospital we would probably both have died. The midwives were great as were the theatre staff. The aftercare was rushed and I was sent home before I should have been as they were desperate for beds. The month before when one of my neighbours was in labour she'd had to go to a different hospital 30 miles away as there weren't any beds so I was lucky.

All three of my labours were good experiences. I had different midwives each time and they were all very professional and helpful. I feel lucky when I hear some people's experiences of not very nice midwives and traumatic births.

I had wanted a water birth with my third but she came very quickly/suddenly in the end so there wasn't time!

The only thing I would change is that I was moved from the birthing room after having my daughter, which we were originally told we would be able to stay in, at about 2am so not really ideal when you're recovering from the labour and bonding with baby.

I had no choice but to be in hospital as I had a planned section at 37 weeks due to my health. My doctors were AMAZING, some of the best people I've met. The midwives were great too despite being understaffed. However, I got insanely ill as a bad reaction to the antibiotics pumped into me and one of the midwives was vicious about it! She was so unfeeling, unsympathetic and harsh that she actually made me cry. She apparently had something of a reputation.

My advice was don't overplan. The birth does not often happen as you think it will but will be just perfect :)

Can't help but feel deeply frustrated at the gradual erosion of choice round here. In reality, the choices they present aren't actually worth banking on as they regularly have to close due to understaffing / over demand.

I had two really different experiences at hospital with my two daughters even though it was the same maternity unit in the same hospital.

With dd1 I felt the midwives had no bedside manner. I had a csection and i felt they were aggressively pushing me to wash / remove my dressing / walk around before I was ready. I had gone to the toilet (it took ages to walk there and use it) and when I got back they had decided to give dh and some other families a lesson in how to bath a baby. When I got back from the toilet I panicked because dh and the baby had just vanished and noone seemed to know where they were! I also got no breastfeeding help, I just felt like an inconvenience.

The second time was completely different. The midwives were helpful, polite, not aggressive. I had been rehearsing in my head how to be more assertive but I didn't need to be because they were absolutely lovely! I even got dh to bring in some bottles of wine to thank them for their care as it was just before xmas and they were telling me it was their christmas party that night.

I had an absolutely awful experience at Basildon Hospital. I had pre-eclampsia and so was off work from 28 weeks. I had monitoring every other day, and was finally taken into hospital one month early and induced. The nurses left me after inducing me, and I spent the night in the toilet being sick, with diarrhoea and having contractions. They eventually knocked me out with pethadine at around 4 in the morning, then woke me at 6 to check on me, and rushed me down to theatre for a c-section, not having rung my partner (who they had thrown out at the end of visiting time) and so I (almost) gave birth on my own. Luckily, my partner decided to come back to hospital and so arrived just in time.
When I was taken back to the ward, it was full, so I was moved to a makeshift ward, with no other patients or staff, and was given my call button. When I realised the drip I was attached to had caused my hand to tissue, I Called the bell, but found it not working, so had to bang my hairbrush from the bedside cabinet on the bed rail to get someone's attention.
In addition, Iwas confined to a wheelchair, my son was in SCBU, BUT I had to get myself down there to see him, as well as taking my son back myself (which the nurses told me wasn't allowed, but they were busy so they'd let me) So I had to wheel my wheelchair, whilst pushing an incubator!

Unfortunately we were in for a whole week. Horrific, horrific, horrific. When I saw Basildon hospital on the news and how awful they had been rated for their maternity care, I wasn't surprised. They also happened to have the highest rate of c-sections in the country.

having had the first 3 at hospital and the last one at home, I would definitely say that the home birth was so much better in every way including care wise.

I gave been at the QMC in Nottingham. The staff were absolutely amazing &, although the labour was long (baby was OP) the experience was really positive & I'm able to look back on it fondly..ish! :)
I'd planned to go to the local birth centre, but 5 days of on/off contractions - when I finally thought it was all happening, I was actually only 1.5cm dilated.. arghh!!
I'd been using the TENS machine & the gym ball at home - but all the pain I was feeling was in my back & it was getting unbearable. The midwife at the birthing centre just kinda rolled her eyes at me - but suggested I go to hospital as they couldn't offer me anything.
I went over the QMC & they were absolutely lovely, got me in the bath & just reassured me really. They identified ketones in my urine & explained that the labour wouldn't progress unless I started eating & drinking (which was the last thing I wanted to do) - but despite all that.. 43 hours after my waters broke - my little man entered the world - all 9lb 8oz of him! His shoulder got stuck (shoulder dystocia) on the way out & the whole room went a bit crazy - they pressed a button on the wall & people crowded in - but all the staff were so encouraging & supportive - I felt really safe & well cared for throughout.
The following day, one of the doctors came down to check I'd understood what had happened, why the extra staff had come in & why my little boy had had to be whisked away. It really allowed me to enjoy the experience & just roll with it, even when it didn't go as planned.
It was actually a blessing the birth centre didn't work out, because if I had stayed - I'd have had to go to hospital with the dystocia anyway. At least I was in the right place when it did happen!

The birth of my daughter was dreadful due to the male midwife not listening, when my waters broke they were green due to my daughter being distressed but he ignored this, he didn't to involve the Consultant due to pride so hours passed until it became an emergency and I had to have a Caesarian.
Afterwards the ward staff didn't recognise my daughter had a tongue tie so wasn't feeding properly so she was hungry, they said that they had wanted to "drop kick her on to the island " ( on the lake in the NHS hospital grounds ) in the night due to her grizzling.
As you can imagine I couldn't wait to leave but ended up staying for a week due to high BP.

My DD was an emergency caesarean delivery. My DS was a Ventouse delivery.

My sense is that whilst reports from the likes of the CQC would be of interest, most people don't have that much of a choice of where to give birth. Equally, I think it comes down to complete chance as to what midwives you get, how busy the hospital is when you go into labour, even down to what day of the week and what time. All these previous have affected my experience, like there being no breastfeeding support over a weekend when I gave birth on Friday night; my placenta being left in the delivery room on a trolley with me for 7 hours whilst I waited for a bed on the ward; a midwife shrieking at me that my baby had slept for 5 hours without a feed when no-one had checked on us and I was totally out of it post epidural. Couldn't wait to get out both times and this is from a brand new hospital with private rooms.

My experience was very positive.
My midwife care was great, very supportive.
I had planned to give birth at the local mlu but ended up being induced in the consultant led ward 2 weeks early.
My birth plan went totally out of the window but it didn’t matter. I felt well looked after and supportive. This was especially important as the hospital had recently been in the spotlight for baby deaths.
My after care on the whole was positive, but I did at times feel a bit alone. I was in shock (aren’t we all) and my baby lost a lot of weight.
However, once this was discovered I was supported to take care of my new baby.

First son born at St Thomas' Hospital in London. Antenatal stuff fine. Birth not so fine - the midwife who looked after me when I got there was bank staff (a temp) and didn't know the hospital policy on group B strep, so I had to argue with her (I am usually really polite! Even then I was really polite! I was just worried) until she stropped off and got her senior who said yes I was right and then followed protocol. Next midwife was lovely. Not my dream birth as ended up 40 hours then forceps in theatre. Worst bit was they took baby away (he cried straight away, no probs at all, all full Agpar (apgar?) scores) and then wrapped him in a towel and gave him to DH! I was desperate to hold him. Desperate.

Postnatal care in hospital and out was crap - missed TT, awful feeding, midwives not that bothered and just wanted to discharge me.

Second and third sons both born at Lewisham Hospital, London. Really wanted the lovely birth centre for both but ended up being induced for DS2 and had meconium in waters with DS3 so labour ward for both. Lovely Polish midwife for DS2, so kind and gentle and thoughtful. V intuitive. Encouraged me to walk around, let me go outside for a bit, and up and down loads of stairs. DS3 was in a rush - midwife was trying to get me to lie on my back to monitor baby but contractions so huge at that point I just couldn't get up onto the bed. So she said things like "well if you don't want the best for baby... well if you want to endanger baby..." Made me cry! Was too much in that fuzzy-headed labour zone to ask if I could sit up and she could monitor that way. Trainee midwife lovely and eventually coaxed me onto bed. Baby born a couple of minutes later!

With both DS2 and 3, I had a retained placenta - horrid experience but staff v kind.

Post-natal BF support not v good - TT not picked up with DS2 (yet I knew there was one!), but was picked up with DS3 at my request during the paediatric baby check. I was told I couldn't be referred for any help though until he was older, we had been visited at home, etc etc etc - well, after the crap with the first two, we got a private midwife to snip at home on day 5. (Had saved the fee for this during pregnancy just in case!)

Generally, Lewisham was great. Yes overstretched but trainees and healthcare assistants had kindness by the bucketload. BF support patchy at best - with St Thomas it was downright negligent (complaint made afterwards, we met with Head of Midwifery etc).

Now my boys are 8, 5 and 1, I can look back (mostly!) fondly on my labours. Agonising but miraculous. Not planning on any more but would prob ask for a C section if I did as I have early stage Pelvic Organ Prolapse from various things related to pregnancy and birth.

I can't fault the care I received during both my pregnancies at the hospital I chose to give birth in (Bassetlaw Hospital) whilst not being my local one there were no issues with me wanting to give birth there and I was high risk, consultant led.

The way my care fell down (and had a long lasting - and expensive for the nhs) impact on my mental health) is due to problems which are very hard to “measure” (although may well have been exacerbated by staff shortages)

Both births ended up happening at Times when I was in an incredibly bad way emotionally
-first birth, my friends baby had just been born and was sadly dying and my heart was breaking for her but none of the midwives would talk about it

• second birth: my older child was very ill in hospital but no one wanted to know. my midwife had lost her cardigan and spent the entire time hunting for that rather

Than paying any attention to me. After baby was born I was in recovery and she popped her head through the door but she wasn’t coming to say hello she was just still hunting for her sodding cardigan.

THe other issue I had was being bed bound post c-section and ringing the buzzer but nobody coming. I think they were just so terribly short staffed but it was horrible.

I had a generally positive experience giving birth. Although I did feel as though things could have been better explained as there were some problems with DD's heart rate and things got a bit panicked. Afterwards I managed to get my own room for the night, which was a bonus.

Next time I'm due to give birth at a different hospital and I feel a bit out of my comfort zone. I think it's almost worth the 50 minute back to drive to go back to the first hospital!