"The entire experience left both myself and my husband with post-traumatic stress"

A mother’s experience of Oxford University Hospitals Maternity Services in 2001 and 2002:

Our harrowing experiences encountered at the maternity wing of the John Radcliffe Hospital go back to 2001-2002.

My first pregnancy had ended in a miscarriage at 7-8 weeks in 2001 summer.

The second pregnancy soon after was obviously precious, however, the rude, unkind behaviour that we faced right from the beginning when we went in for the 12 weeks' and 20 weeks' scan, and follow-up checks at the John Radcliffe hospital were pathetic and unacceptable.

After a fairly smooth 9 months of pregnancy (I had no health complications), we had to insist for cervical induction given that the baby was becoming post-dated and had completed 40 weeks. There was so much reluctance on the part of the obstetrics team to provide adequate advice and support that time to ensure that the delivery of the baby is planned effectively.

Then came the dreadful day of delivery when my waters broke and I was rushed to the John Radcliffe Hospital in the early hours of a dull, grey June morning.

After initial progress of labour, the baby started showing indications of meconium aspiration. My temperature spiked and I became delirious. After a lot of persuasion, the obstetrics team agreed to caesarean section late in the evening.

When I was wheeled into the operating theatre, I had very little awareness of the proceedings given that my health condition was deteriorating. The locum registrar who operated on me was most inept and inefficient. My baby boy was delivered suffering from acute meconium aspiration and had to be rushed to the paediatric intensive care as he had trouble breathing on his own. Thankfully, he was a big baby and did not suffer any trauma to the brain.

The paediatric team intubated him at the Neo-natal Intensive Care Unit and then we were informed that the best possible outcome to save my boy was to arrange him to be taken to a specialist centre where he would receive ECMO (Extra-Corporeal Membrane Oxygenator) treatment - a kind of lung-bypass machine to give respite to his lungs which had stopped functioning due to blockage by meconium.

It was then that the ECMO team from Glenfield Hospital, Leicester arrived at Oxford the following morning and took my son away for providing him the specialist treatment. Sadly, John Radcliffe Hospital did not have facilities for ECMO treatment on site.

My son was at Leicester with my husband for three days before I could join them as I was recovering from a traumatic, unplanned C-section (had myself suffered severe internal bleeding and tachycardia during the C-section procedure).

My son was at the Intensive Care Unit at the Glenfield Hospital for 14 days, then he was transferred to the Intensive Care Unit of the John Radcliffe Hospital for another 14 days. Finally, after almost 5 weeks after birth, we could take our son back home.

The entire experience left both myself and my husband with post-traumatic stress and it took us almost a year to recover from this most distressing ordeal in our lives.