"I received little to no help in caring for my twins in the 48 hours after my caesarean section"

A mother’s experience of Oxford University Hospitals Maternity Services in 2020:

I had a twin pregnancy (MCDA) and had a substandard experience for several reasons:

• I was told I ought to have a vaginal birth at 30 weeks by a fetal medicine consultant I had met for the first time, when I had made clear it was my wish to have a caesarean due to the high risk nature of twins; this advice was then reversed the following fortnight.

  
  

• The growth estimates on US were significantly off (as evidenced by their significantly different birth weights) but I did not see an obstetrician afterwards to explain how this could have happened. If picked up, my twins should have been managed as selective IUGR;

  
  

• I received very little help with feeding my twins - they became dehydrated and one developed jaundice - one of my twins was readmitted for treatment of jaundice and during this time the nurses insisted on taking obs on my other twin daughter when she had been formally discharged. They woke her up from sleep to do this - this was completely unnecessary and deprived us both of much needed rest;

  
  

• I was put in a side room after birth, but nobody came to help when I pulled the bell on several occasions.

  
  

• I received little to no help in caring for my twins in the 48 hours after my caesarean section. It was Covid times and I was allowed one visitor for one hour a day, so effectively gave my twins round the clock care on my own having just had major surgery. I was in terrible pain and could barely stand. On one occasion I was denied analgesia because it was ‘5 minutes before it was due’ but then did not receive it on time thereafter.

  
  

• On the day of planned discharge, the nurses initially refused to allow a visitor. We complained as discharge was not certain (and in fact did not happen that day). In the end my husband was allowed to visit but it is another example of what felt like cruel behaviour.

  
  

• I had to wash bottles for my babies in the toilet where there was no access to washing up sponges/liquid.

Overall my memories of the immediate period after birth were of a lack of empathy /compassion. I felt like a tick box exercise and so long as the paperwork was filled in the staff felt they had done their job, without looking at me or my twins as people who needed care and compassion.