A mother's experience of Oxford University Hospitals Maternity Services in 2016 and 2021:
I have had two birth experiences at the John Radcliffe - in 2016 and 2021. In 2016 I had a low risk pregnancy until I was 41 weeks when the community midwife found protein in my urine. After hours in MAU attached to monitors, waiting to be diagnosed, I was told that I had late onset pre-eclampsia and I would have to be admitted and stay overnight and that their plan was to induce me the next day. I was so swollen from the pre-eclampsia that I could barely move and I wanted to avoid an induction so I asked for a caesarean (something I had wanted to avoid).
The obstetrician refused my caesarean request, despite the fact that I was so swollen, exhausted and could barely move, and told me that it would be better if I gave vaginal birth a go. I was then attached to a drip, and monitors, and spent 19 hours in a windowless room in absolute agony with back-to-back contractions, not allowed to eat and only allowed to drink 75ml of liquid an hour.
I wasn’t allowed to leave the room - not even to go to the toilet. I was made to try and poo into a cardboard bowl balanced on a chair. It was incredibly degrading and inhumane. It turned out my son was a big baby and back to back (which makes labour more painful and difficult) - I was in excruciating pain and all the midwife would offer me was paracetamol.
After hours and hours I finally had an epidural. I kept almost passing out and felt like I was dying but the midwife just kept dismissing me and telling me I was fine. OUH missed so many risks with my care- they should never have induced me and they should have allowed me to have a caesarean birth as that was the safest option. My son was finally born by emergency caesarean due to “failure to progress” when I was “stuck” at 8cm dilated.
I entered motherhood a shell of the person I was before I entered that hospital and that was completely preventable. I went on to develop severe postnatal depression and how I was treated by OUH during my son’s birth was a huge contributory factor. I was told by midwives during my son’s birth that I should make a complaint about the missed risks and missed pre-eclampsia and I was told to contact the Birth Afterthoughts service.
When I finally called them a few weeks after my son’s birth the midwife who answered told me that it didn’t sound like the service was for me, as it sounded more like I had a complaint! I went on to make a complaint and met with the Head of Midwifery and my consultant obstetrician who were incredibly dismissive - even telling me that the obstetrician who refused the caesarean would be upset that I didn’t think he listened! The postnatal care for both of my births has been substandard.
In 2021, following a caesarean, I was left in my own blood and treated like a piece of meat by the postnatal staff. They forgot to track my pain relief and tried to give me a double dose of pain killers - if I hadn’t been tracking it on my phone I would have overdosed while responsible for a newborn. My partner was made to leave a few hours after our daughter was born - I was unable to walk and had a catheter in. I was so scared about being left alone and responsible for a newborn baby while immobile, on pain medication and bleeding heavily.
I cried and begged the nurse but she told me it was “one rule for everyone”. My partner was made to leave and I was left alone, unable to move, soaked in blood, looking after a newborn baby. It was cruel and I will never forgive the staff for their failure to advocate for women, babies and their families. When my partner returned to the postnatal ward the next day no-one even asked who he was, or checked any ID. There was a complete lack of safeguarding for women and new babies.
My postnatal experience got worse as I requested milk for my daughter and I was told that they wouldn’t even give her any human donor milk until I could demonstrate that I could hand express colostrum. I had been expressing colostrum for weeks antenatally but after the caesarean my body wasn’t producing any. Due to the ‘Baby Friendly’ policy that OUH follows, milk was withheld from my newborn baby. I dread to think what would have happened to her if I hadn’t pushed to be discharged so quickly.