"the trauma of not being listened to and of being left alone a lot has caused me a lot of postpartum anxiety."

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

 My waters broke at 4 am on a Tuesday morning in November. I wasn’t experiencing any contractions but phoned the MAU who advised I go in for a check-up. After the usual checks, I was then sent home to wait for contractions to begin.

By 3pm, my contractions had slowly started. I tracked them carefully and by 6:30pm they were intense enough to make the 45 minute journey (more than this in traffic) to the JR and arrived at around 8pm. We hoped to deliver our baby in the Spires but when we arrived, the corridors were completely deserted.

At this point I was experiencing fairly strong contractions, quite frequently. I was then taken into a room where the midwife carried out the first initial checks. She explained that she wouldn’t be able to check my dilation properly as it could lead to an infection due to my waters breaking over 12 hours earlier. However, she said she would try to look so opened my vagina and estimated that I was about 1cm.

Despite obviously being in pain and experiencing frequent contractions, she advised that I could go home. I explained that it took me over an hour to get there, so I didn’t want to make that journey again. She then checked my blood pressure which was slightly raised and advised me to go back down to the MAU.

Overall, I just got the impression from the midwife there that they didn’t really want me there. When we got back down to the MAU, we were told that we would need to wait in the (busy) waiting room as all of the rooms were full. I was experiencing very painful contractions getting closer and closer together and I didn’t feel comfortable going through this in front of other people in a waiting room so I asked if I could sit in the corridor where it was slightly quieter and much cooler. They said that was fine and somebody would be with me soon.

My husband went back in several times to remind them that I was still sat there and 45 minutes later I was taken through to the delivery suite by a midwife and a student midwife.

At this point, I felt relieved as I thought I would finally receive some care and attention from these two people. They took me, in a wheelchair, into one room and I got onto the bed with great difficulty however they then realised that the room didn’t have the correct equipment that they needed so I had to move to the room next door.

They did the usual checks on me and baby and when everything was normal, they left my husband and I alone. I expected them to come back relatively soon considering I was experiencing intense contractions, but I only saw the student midwife, what felt like, a couple of times for the next hour or so.

During this time, I was only offered diamorphine as pain relief, but I immediately vomited this up and was not offered anything else. At around 10:30 pm, the student midwife returned and said that I would need to be taken up to level six as I was still in the early stages of labour. I asked if my dilation could be checked before I moved as I didn’t feel like I was in the early stages of labour. The student midwife wasn’t sure so she went out to ask.

When she returned, she said that I couldn’t be checked because I could get an infection. Due to being in intense pain with quick contractions, I asked again whether I absolutely had to move as I felt like labour was progressing quickly. She went off again to ask but came back and said that I definitely had to move as other women were further along than I was and because this was my first baby, it was probably going to be a while yet. I made it very clear that I felt labour was progressing quickly. 

When she left to make arrangements for me to move, I continued to experience severe contractions and eventually felt my baby move into the birth canal. My husband and I were alone throughout this time and I had to send him to get some help. We should’ve used the bell, but in the panic of the moment we didn’t think. He went out onto the delivery ward and couldn’t find a single member of staff to help so he had to go back to the MAU to find someone.

A midwife came back with him and found the student midwife who came in to see me. I could feel some blood in my knickers, so I pulled them down to show her and she immediately rang the bell to get assistance. It was only then that a doctor arrived and a fully qualified midwife who only needed to look at my vagina to see that my baby’s head was crowning.

After a few minutes, my baby was born at 11:40pm. Fortunately, she was healthy and I was okay as they certainly would not have been prepared if any intervention was required.

Although I had what seems like a relatively seamless labour, the trauma of not being listened to and of being left alone a lot has caused me a lot of postpartum anxiety.

The aftercare was also poor as we were left alone a lot and moved to the recovery ward at 5am. My husband was immediately asked to leave before we had even opened our bags and I spent the next few hours crying until he returned. I was unbelievably sleep deprived and overwhelmed.

There was only one nurse (who said she was usually based at a different hospital) who actually helped me to breast feed and guided me about formula given that my supply seemed low.

Overall, it was a traumatic experience and I was disappointed that it has put me off going through pregnancy and labour again.