"A midwife laughed when she saw the amount of blood and told me it was nothing"

A mother's experience of Oxford University Hospitals Maternity Services in 2024:

12 week scan, so anxious. I told the sonographer how I was feeling, I was met with silence. The whole scan she was silent so I had to ask - is my baby alive, is there a heartbeat?

Her response? Of course there’s a heartbeat? You can see that. What should have been a happy moment left me feeling belittled, stupid and not reassured.

This continued in my antenatal care. I went to MAU with bleeding when I was about 28 weeks. It was a significant amount of blood (soaking underwear and through to my trousers) and I was terrified.

A midwife laughed when she saw the amount of blood and told me it was nothing. Told me not to bother returning unless it was pouring out.