"all my suffering could have been prevented if that woman had just listened to me"

A mother's experience of Oxford University Hospitals Maternity Services in 2018:

I gave birth in 2018. I had an unmedicated natural delivery that went very well. The problems came after delivery.

I was in so much pain and was constantly told that it was normal (it was not) the pain i was in was worse than the labour but my midwife had finished her shift and another one hadn’t come by so i said to the maternity nurse that came into the room and she said oh maybe its because you have not been for a wee yet.

So i stood up to go to the bathroom and blood gushed out of me and went all over the floor. Me and my partner looked at each other in shock but the just said oh thats normal you haven’t had a period in 9 months. I took her word for it and went to walk to the toilet when i passed out. She caught me and took me to the bed and said oh its because you’re in pain let me get a bed pan so you can wee.

I couldn’t wee as everything was so swollen. So she came back and put a catheter in. It was only then that she realised how much i was bleeding and got a consultant to come and check me. They said i needed to have a spinal block and emergency surgery to stop the bleeding.

I gave birth at 8:40 and this was now 12am by the time i was taken to surgery. I was bleeding out for 3 hours and no one knew. I was in surgery until 6am. And in that time no one checked on my son or partner. He didn’t have any milk for 6 hours until i was on the recovery ward.

I ended up losing 2.7 litres of blood. Had multiple bags of blood transfusions and had to stay in hospital for 5 days until i discharged myself I feel that all my suffering could have been prevented if that woman had just listened to me when i was in pain and my body was telling me there was something wrong.