"Being left in a room, with no help, no painkiller and no idea what was happening to me was terrifying"

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

I had a very traumatic birth with my first child. I went to the maternity unit at 9pm Sat 10th Nov, I had contractions 4 minutes apart, had lost my mucous plug along with blood.

Entering the unit I was asked to give a urine sample, which clearly also had blood in it. My ex-husband and I were taken the to the very end room, I was strapped up to the monitoring machine and for monitoring baby. We were then just left in there, with no idea as to what was happening.

The pain was excruciating, I’d received no painkiller whatsoever, I remember squeezing onto my ex-husbands arms to try and get through the pain, so hard that he had bruised up his arms.

At 9.30pm my waters broke all over the floor, my clothes and my ex’s shoes, no one had been in to see us or monitor me. The pain was getting worse, and my ex-husband pressed the call button for someone to come and help. Nobody arrived.

A nurse finally arrived at 9.50pm/10pm, where we explained my waters had gone and the pain was unbearable.

She said she needed to check my cervix, so I undressed my bottom half, lay on the bed, and she said I was 6cm dilated and needed to be taken straight to delivery. Still no pain medication.

Another nurse arrived with a wheelchair, I knelt up on the wheelchair, writhing in pain, the nurse commented to my ex about how much pain I looked like I was in. I was wheeled to a room, laid on the bed, finally given gas and air, whilst kneeling up on the bed. The midwife then tried to get an IV line into my arm, the 3rd attempt worked, as they were unsure how much blood I had lost and needed to put one in just in case.

Labour progressed quickly, I was told to lay on my side, I recall the midwife saying after an hour of pushing that she needed to get the doctor.

The doctor came in and said baby’s heart rate was dropping so we might need to do an emergency section. I didn’t want to do this, but they first tried ventouse. I had no painkiller other than gas and air for the ventouse machine to be inserted. This helped bring my son down into the birth canal, and then I delivered him naturally. I was given anaesthetic for my internal stitches.

I have to say, [midwife name], my midwife during birth was great, however, the care leading up to it left me with PTSD and extreme anxiety. For a while I had flashbacks, and even now the thought of birthing another child frightens me.

Being left in a room, with no help, no painkiller and no idea what was happening to me was terrifying and extremely traumatic.