"as a 19 year old giving birth, I don’t think they took anything I said seriously."

A mother's experience of Oxford University Hospitals Maternity Services in 2012 and 2024:

I have had two experiences at the JR.

My son was born in 2012 – the midwives didn’t listen to me and as a 19 year old giving birth, I don’t think they took anything I said seriously.

The midwives had a change of shift and did not communicate with each other. The first midwife said I was fully dilated and could start pushing, the second midwife said I was nowhere near, so in total I had pushed for well over what I should have, which resulted in emergency forceps and a nasty tear to myself. Which took years to fully heal.

My daughter was born in 2024 - it took me that long to feel confident to have another baby and once again have robbed me of what’s supposed to be an amazing experience.

I go into natural labour and to my surprise things had progressed extremely quick. I was 8cm when I got to the hospital so they took me straight to the delivery suite where I met with the midwife who would be delivering my baby, her name was [midwife’s name]. She never read a single note in my badger notes, she disappeared more times than I can count.

She said she needed to check my daughter’s heartbeat with a Doppler, pure silence….she then asked when I last felt her move (bear in mind) I’m in established labour at this point and can’t say I noticed. She then insinuated that my daughter had died before she was even born. My mother who was my birthing partner told her to go and get another Doppler as she was wrong. So she did after about 10 minutes of arguing with us about it, she bought back the new Doppler and found my daughter’s heartbeat straight away.

Those moments felt like eternity.

It was 13:30 in the afternoon and I told her I needed to push. She told me there was no way and that she was now finishing her shift and I wouldn’t be checked now until 14:30. The new midwife came in and could hear the pushing noises coming from me, she looked and there was my daughter about to be born!!

If only I had the second midwife from the start because she cared! My daughter was born at 13:48!! Unfortunately I suffered a tear again and had to be taken to theatre and then on to recovery.

A few hours went past and I was told I had to get out of bed, and I relayed that I still didn’t have feeling in my left leg. The nurse still got me out of bed. Sat me on a chair and left my bed buzzer on the bed where I could not reach it.

I have since complained about [midwife’s name] and I’ve also complained about the lady who “helped” in recovery. Her name was [second midwife’s name]. 

I remember these names, not for good reasons, but because the care was so poor.