"the trauma from both the births at hospital made me decide I was absolutely not having any further children."

A mother’s experience of Oxford University Hospitals Maternity Services in 2007 and 2009:

I had my son at JR hospital in 2007. On arrival at the hospital I was told it was very busy due to a full moon! My labour was quite slow to progress and I didn’t get a bed for a while. I had a really lovely midwife who looked after me very well, even though it was very busy. I eventually got a bed and by this point the midwife was going off duty and the replacement came on. The original midwife said she would come and see me in the morning when she came back on duty.

As time went on my contractions slowed and nothing was progressing. The midwife spoke to a doctor who decided to ventouse my son out. I felt that she made that choice to get me done with as soon as possible. My baby was being monitored and wasn’t distressed. When she tried she couldn’t get him out, she even had to put her foot on the bed for leverage! Eventually she pulled him out and in doing so gave me a third degree tear. When this happened she actually rolled her eyes, like oh great now we have this to deal with.

I was losing lots of blood, nobody told me what was happening, a consent form was shoved in my face to sign, I don’t even know what it said and I was rushed for emergency surgery. My poor midwife even apologised to the operating staff for the fact I had no epidural in as I then had to have a spinal block put in for surgery. My husband was just left with our son, not knowing what was happening and even got thrown out of the delivery room as they needed to clean it for the next person. My body was in such shock I couldn’t stop shaking.

The next day the previous midwife came to see me and was outraged at my treatment. She said I should have been put on a drip to progress my contractions. She was so angry for me she wanted me to make a complaint straight away. However I was still in such shock, had had major surgery and a new baby to care for I didn’t.

When I had my daughter in 2009 I didn’t want another hospital birth but they said I was high risk as I had had intervention with the first and that I should go to hospital again, so I did as I wanted to do the best for my baby. This time I didn’t go until my contractions were really close as I didn’t want to be in the hospital. When I got there they shut me in a room for ages saying somebody would come and assess me even though I said my contractions were less than 2 mins apart and it was my second baby.

Eventually I could feel her trying to be born so I pressed the alarm and eventually somebody came. They acted like I was making a fuss and said ok they would see how dilated I was, when they lifted my dress to look, they panicked and said your baby is being born now they could see the head. They were pressing alarms and said there was no time to take me to delivery and I would have to have the baby there with not even gas and air. By this point I just lost the plot and a very kind midwife pushed me in a trolley down to delivery so I could have gas and air at least.

Once there, I told everybody to not touch me and to leave me alone and I gave birth very quickly and naturally with not even a single tear, even though I had been classed high risk! The only reason I was classed high risk was their intervention.

The midwives do their best but so understaffed and from what I witnessed many were intimidated by the doctors. I realise I am very lucky to have 2 healthy children, however the trauma from both the births at hospital made me decide I was absolutely not having any further children.