"I was not given any support to wash for a week"

A mother’s experience of Oxford University Hospitals Maternity Services in 2015:

I had a twin pregnancy under the "care" of OUH JR and local NHS services. I had a scan at 7 weeks confirming twins and all seemed ok at that time.

I later had a Doppler check up at my then doctors who could not locate a heart beat of one baby but said they were not concerned, they sought advice from the JR who did not want to scan me. I was deeply distressed being sent home not knowing if one twin was alive so we drove to an out of county hospital who gladly scanned me and thankfully confirmed they could detect both heartbeats. My scans were then fairly consistent from then onwards.

I discovered they forgot to give me whooping cough vaccine so gave it to my at 36 weeks. When I had a consultation appointment with [male obstetrician name] when I was around 36 weeks he suggested I had a caesarean despite there being no medical need. I felt deeply uncomfortable as both twins were in a good position for a vaginal birth. I got preeclampsia and was admitted on the same day as that appointment and kept in.

At 37 weeks on the nose it was suggested I had an induction due to my preeclampsia. My induction was horrendous, the pain was unreal and I was crying out in distress as the midwife at 10pm in the evening applied the gel and I later now understand did a manual stretch of my cervix. To this day I mentally struggle to think about this. I asked her to stop but they insisted they couldn't. My husband was present but then sent home as it was past 10pm.

My contractions started quickly and incredibly intensely. I asked about pain relief options and said I wanted no opium based pain relief. I later discovered I was given opium based pain relief. I vomited consistently after that and felt detached from my body. I was later moved into a birthing room where they attached a head node to one of my twins. Unfortunately I needed to be moved to theatre and gave birth with the aid of forceps. I lost a lot of blood and was very unwell after the boys were born.

For me the following happened... I wasn't given a blood transfusion for about 4-5 days after giving birth despite being very unwell. When I was given a transfusion the nurse spilt the blood pack over my arm before attaching it to my cannula. I was not given any support to wash for a week (I was physically too week), I later needed an iron transfusion due to severe anaemia, I had an unknown infection and was treated with two different antibiotics to this day no one can tell me what infection I had.

I got no support to breastfeed as I was so weak my milk did not come in quick enough. I was given formula and breast milk that was donated and told that was my option. I tried for one month expressing.

Meanwhile both my twins had jaundice. They were treated with sunlamps. They were left under lamps for over 12 hours at points and I was told I could not pick them up. They forgot to turn lamps off and just apologised. I had to take my twins down to receive antibiotics during the nights and I stated I needed help pushing them down lifts and corridors and I was told I had to do it myself as I hadn't had a caesarean. I collapsed when they were having their medicines and had them taken away as I couldn't walk back to my bed.

There is probably a lot more I could go into but I feel deeply distressed even typing this.