"My basic needs were not met. I went without food for 24 hours"

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

If I had to describe my experience on the postnatal ward, I would say lack of compassion, lack of dignity, lack of care. My basic needs were not met. I went without food for 24 hours and without pain relief or water for 8 hours.

A midwife took away my sanitary protection and underwear and promised to return with new ones. She never returned, leaving me humiliated in a pool of my own blood. I felt I had no dignity left.

It was like I was abandoned on the ward and even though I had just had major surgery I was treated as an inconvenience. I just wanted to go home to feel safe.

After a safe delivery of my daughter via c-section with caring, professional and empathetic staff, it was a stark contrast to experience the complete lack of care on Level 5.

On arrival, I was wheeled on to a four bed bay, and left for a long period of time without any support. I was, of course, unable to move at this stage following the c-section and I was not provided with the buzzer to call for help. When a nurse came to check on me, I asked for food, water and pain relief. These were not provided. I understand that the NHS is stretched but I believe basic care such as water and pain relief is a non-negotiable.

During my time on the four bed bay, a nurse came and helped me to get out of bed and take my first few steps. I was wearing a gown which was open at the back and nothing else except disposable underwear and a maternity pad. My gown was covered in blood so I asked if it would be possible to have a second gown to cover up my back for the first walk around the ward. This request was denied. I felt ashamed when taking my first walk through the ward as there were lots of visitors around who could see me in a compromised state.

My catheter bag almost overflowed several times during my stay as it was not emptied in good time causing it to back flow into the tube as it was at full capacity. Following this experience, I buzzed for help every time it started to get full only to find out there was an expectation for me to be emptying my own. Nobody had told me this or shown me how to do it. I was still not very mobile following my c-section.

During my stay, my daughter should have had 24 hours of observation to check for signs of withdrawal from a prescription medication that I take. I was not aware of this however after being on the ward for 24 hours, during which time very little formal or informal observation of my daughter had taken place, we were informed by [midwife’s name] that the ward did not know I had epilepsy and did not know that I took any medication therefore I would now need to stay for at least another 24 hours if not 5-7 days for this monitoring to take place.

This was entirely the fault of the staff however the tone in which this message was relayed to me by [midwife’s name] was blaming me for not raising that I take medication.

The delivery of the message was very poor. I was being told that my baby had been forgotten about and could now be very unwell due to this, yet it was blurted out as though this was acceptable. Understandably I was upset that my daughter had been forgotten about, with no checks being carried out. I told [midwife’s name] that I felt unsafe and uncared for and that I wanted to go home.

It was at this point she told me that she would tell safeguarding about me. I had been a mother for 24 hours and I was being threatened with safeguarding. I felt judged and that I was being treated like a mother who was deliberately putting their baby at harm. There was no empathy or apology for the error that had occurred.