C4 NOW - Dispatches - Undercover Mother

[Whizzz]

scary...

Had similar experience the post natal care in the N London hospital I was in was shocking:

1. DD put on me to feed hours after my c section when I was exhausted and couldnt move and left although we were supposed to be supervised. She began to suffocate I didnt notice as so exhausted. Luckily my husband noticed screamed and she was resusicitated by drs. Had PTSD and still suffer from nightmares about this

2. Ignored by mw so had to move hours after my c section to pick up crying baby

3. Sat in blood for hours and ignored.

4 Dr ordered treatment for jaundice it was not given.

5. Shouted at by mw to "feed your baby" as she was crying and disturbing others but given NO help bf.

etc etc. bloody awful. Had always thought the NHS was pretty good until I experienced it. Medical care itself was good tho.

Thomcat, get dh briefed, AIMS says if they refuse WHILE you're in labour then:

"If, when you ring for a midwife when you are in labour, you are still told that a midwife cannot attend because they are short staffed, we suggest that you, or your partner, responds as follows:

'What is your name and your status? (Make a note of who it is). 'I have no intention of putting myself or my baby at risk of travelling in labour to the hospital and exposing us to the additional risks of a hospital delivery. If you fail to send a midwife and any untoward event occurs which can be attributed to your failure to provide a midwife you can rest assured that my family will take appropriate action'.

So far, in every case to date that we know of, the Trust has provided a midwife. You may also wish to ensure that the authorities know that there are problems in your area so you could also send copies to the contacts listed below."

God knew i should not have watched it.

I def agree about slowing growing babies, my midwife never measured me at all, just put in my notes the right weeks, however, when 29 weeks a doc noticed my little bump and order a scan, lucky for me as I have lost most of my water and my placenta was failing
Even now i have to ask to be measured, I know its not fool proof but surely should be done as standard.

Oh and when I was in ward this week for kidney infection there was one midwife on our ward and the HCA was serving food as house keeper had left and not been replaced. I had to buzz 3 times and still took 10 mins for someone to come as see me as i was chucking up everywhere

LOl @ my noted saying my meds were given late as I didnt wake to take them, hmmm maybe should take alarm with me next time.

Lets just say Im not looking forward to my stay in OCT!!!!

Lisa

With dd1 I had a midwife and student with me the whole time, I had a NVD with gas and air in a pool. The midwife was wonderfull, I will never forget her.

With dd2, I arrived at the maternity unit just after 13:00 the same midwife prepared the pool for me but it was the end of her shift. The new midwife told me I was 4cm dilated and she broke my waters, helped me off the bed and told me just to wait for the pool that was almost ready, then she left the room. The contractions was very very strong. She came back after n few minutes (no idea of time) and helped me into the pool. She left again. I asked my dh to take a deep inhalation of the gas and air and I started giggling... the next moment I had to push and there was no midwife!!! Dh called them, she had a look and told me to push. Dd was born 14:08. All went well, but thinking back now, I was left alone and I still dont even know the name of the second midwife...

A postnatal ward is my definition of hell. You are hungry, tired, too many babys crying when you want to sleep and no help with breastfeeding...

Watching reminded me why I was glad I had a homebirth last time. One to one care and no hassles about get baby checked 0 they all came to me - I know I was fortunate to have a 'normal' delivery but I did have to question a consultants decision (I had one night in hosptital during pregnancy for an early show and small bleed) that I couldn't have a hb - I still did and it was great.

My 1st birth was a more unpleasant hospital experience and that made me determined to have a hb for dd. It was interesting that the woman in Undercover Mother decided on elective cs after her traumatic 1st birth. I was put of intervention entirely by my exp.

I think from what she was saying the most traumatic part for her was the internal exams and thats why she went for C section. I didnt think they allowed elelective C sections anymore

Lisa

I also had shocking postnatal care, or lack of, again not because the staff themselves were incompetent but there just weren't enough of them. I have a long list of things they did wrong and never got round to writing a letter of complaint but maybe I should. Things that happened were as follows:

background - I had already lost a baby girl at full-term very unexpectedly, she stopped breathing a few hours after delivery and died at nine days old, due to some blood problem that was never identified.

naturally I was terrified of losing my second baby. so they sent him to SCBU after my section also as he was 4 weeks premature. did not communicate with me whether he was alright. he was meant to be under 24 hour observation they had him apart from me for FOUR DAYS would not bring him up to me and did not have the staff to bring me down to him, so apart from the occasional visit I was apart from him for four days!!! paediatrician whose care he was under had not even read the notes on what happened with my last baby and had to ask ME! not reassuring in the least.

shocking lack of care also:

• like in the programme my drip went unchanged when it ran out and I had a catheter in my hand for several days unnecessarily.
• was meant to have blood test after 24 hours to check in case I needed a transfusion, they did it after 4/5 days.
• almost bled to death on the operating table as they didn't read my notes which said I was on aspirin.
• forgot I was there and did not bring me food - I couldn't get out of bed due to combination of op and heavy blood loss.
• forgot to empty bins full of nappies and sanitary towels as I was in a side room.
• took me down in a wheelchair to see my son and forgot to bring me back with the result that I had to witness my son being given a blood test which was very painful for him (brings tears to my eyes even now) and I also missed dinner as I was not in the ward and they kept nothing for me - had to ask my husband to bring me some food in.
• gave me no help with breastfeeding or bathing until I pestered them, eventually they helped on my last day. suffered the embarrassment of sitting in scbu trying to latch baby on with no help or screens not knowing what the hell I was doing

I could go on.

I am toying with the idea of training as a midwife myself so I can help provide the care that I didn't get, however I suspect I may be disillusioned with being unable to deliver quality of care due to huge patient-midwife ratio

oh yeah and like the lady in the programme they forgot to get me up and about after the op, and I was supposed to have a shower but all they did was hand me a bowl of water and a flannel. the ladies who do all the more manual stuff (healthcare assistants?) were shocked when they saw me the next day and found out I had not been got out of bed or had a proper wash

I have to say, this was a midlands city hospital. we have since moved out of the city into a smaller town and I had my third child at the local, much smaller hospital. The experience could not have been more different. staff were wonderful, all my needs were met, communication was good and I had no grumbles, I even sent them a thank you card

WWW - sorry, a belated thanks for taking the trouble to post that,

I was at the Whittington and only heard about the programme today reading the local paper, fortunately I have access through Virgin Media to some programmes including Dispatches via Catch Up TV on Demand, so watched it.

I had mixed feelings tbh. I was surprised that the journalist in the programme didn't go through some of her ante-natal decision making and checks etc through a shared care system where her GP and the hospital were both involved, but to a private obstetrician who slagged off the NHS.

I was induced and had a long labour, but was only left with my birthing partners (partner and mum) for short periods of time in the fairly early stages, and for the later part of the labour was never just left.

The postnatal care was a problem though I never met anyone who was less than polite, and the worst stories I've heard were from women at another hospital. I would have liked more support on breastfeeding, and given how long it took people to come when I needed them, I would have liked to go home sooner where my partner and mum could have looked after me and Danny.

I'd like to see campaigning to improve things for everyone but I'm not sure that this kind of sensationalised TV does it.

The stories from Watford were much more disturbing, and it does worry me thinking that this may well happen in other areas, like North London (I want to have a 2nd baby).

I think if anyone wants to see the programme and has broadband they might still be able to before Monday night on the Channel 4 on demand online thing but don't know exactly how it works.