"We reached out to PALs to raise a complaint and had a response that essentially said ‘these things happen’ with no apology."

A mother’s experience of Oxford University Hospitals Maternity Services in 2023:

My name is [name], I gave birth by emergency C-section on [date] 2023 at 1.36am. I am not happy with my experience.

I was induced at 37 weeks due to having preeclampsia. I was on level 6 for 5 days before being taken down to the delivery suite. I had a lovely midwife and a trainee. I had a drip and my waters were broken but my blood pressure was high, so I was given a double dose of my tablet for my blood pressure.

Another midwife came in to cover my midwife for a break and helped me with the gas and air and told me about the epidural, she made me feel that was my only option, being my first child I trusted her. She said she would go get the anaesthetist to talk me through having an epidural but the anaesthetist came in with the equipment and told me what position to get in. They gave me the epidural before checking any of my notes.

As this was going on my midwife came back from her break and said “thought I had come into the wrong room,” indicating to us that she had not been consulted. After they had given it to me they asked each other if I had any allergies. The anaesthetist commented that the epidural would also lower my blood pressure.

After my epidural I felt unwell and my blood pressure had dropped too much and my baby's heart beat stopped, my midwife was with me and my mother - my partner had popped out to the toilet. My midwife pressed the emergency button and a number of people came into the room and I was rushed to theatre. When I got there they managed to find my baby’s heart beat and the surgeon commented that I could go back to the delivery suite, the anaesthetist said no she needs to have a c-section. So that is what I had.

I also didn’t receive any pain medication after multiple requests while in recovery. We reached out to PALs to raise a complaint and had a response that essentially said ‘these things happen’ with no apology.