"I decided not to have another child as the thought of entering that maternity ward again was too much to bear"

A mother’s experience of Oxford University Hospitals Maternity Services in 2007:

My baby was 10 days overdue and so I was booked in to be induced. Two days before the induction, I was called to say the hospital was bringing the date forward as they had ‘too many bookings’ that week. I had 12 hours to prepare but was just happy to be finally able to give birth.

Following the induction, all went as planned and by the early hours I was in labour. As I knew it would be a while before things got really active, and it was 3am, I asked that my husband not be called until a bit later on, but this request was ignored.

Once he had arrived, we didn’t see a midwife again for 4 hours. When one finally turned up to see how I was doing, I was in great pain and requested an epidural, which was in my birth plan. She was dismissive of this request but after pleading for another 2 hours, I was able to get one. It took 4 goes for the anaesthetist to get the line in.

I gave birth 12 hours later in an operating theatre following a sudden drop in my baby’s heart rate. I had an episiotomy, and my one memory of that difficult time is the surgeon laughing that it would ‘be easier next time’. I lost a lot of blood and was very ill and in pain.

The following day, I asked a nurse on the maternity ward for painkillers three times to no avail. My husband ended up going to a pharmacy and buying them himself. I needed a blood transfusion and a cannula was inserted but I then had to wait another 36 hours before the transfusion, meaning I couldn’t pick my baby up as the cannula was sore in my hand.

When I finally got down to have the transfusion, the nurse forgot to remove the clip so I lay there for 2 hours with no blood being transfused. When she eventually came back to the bed and realised what she’d done (or not done) she didn’t say a word. The same thing happened when I was given the second bag and I had to drag myself off the bed to try and get someone’s attention. The transfusion took 8 hours in total.

All this time I was in absolute pieces - I felt like I had to beg for every bit of care and that I was being ‘a bad patient’ when all I wanted to do was bond with my beautiful new baby. It was truly awful and I suffered trauma for a long time afterwards.

In the end, I left hospital early, even though I was still unwell. I couldn’t cope with another second in that place.

Following my experience I decided not to have another child as the thought of entering that maternity ward again was too much to bear. I wrote to complain but received no response.

The NHS is amazing, and most of the people who work in it are too. I just hope that this review of OUH Maternity Services will bring about major changes in women’s care.