"we were told she should have been supervised by a sensible doctor when carrying out the forceps"

A mother's experience of Oxford University Hospitals Maternity Services in 2022:

I gave birth to my daughter, which was a horrendous experience and the care and communication by most of these doctors was awful.

Throughout the anti natal appointments I was seen by [male obstetrician name]. After waiting an hour 1/2 to be seen, we were seen for 5 minutes! He just took one look at my scan, and notes and just said we will continue to review and see you in two weeks. 🤦🏼‍♀️

So I had no preparation of anything at this point. When I said this in my birth reflections appointment, the senior midwife said this is just ‘typical’ of [male obstetrician name]. I was then seen at 38 weeks by a doctor called [female name] who had no people skills- senior midwife also commented she is not great with people skills 🤦🏼‍♀️

She went in straight away to say I will be induced. This was the first time I was told this, no communication from my previous appointments so I was very upset at the time as I wasn’t allowed a water birth and it triggered my blood pressure, so I ended up being admitted. Wasn’t seen by her again.

In the end I was induced on my due date and went into labour 12 hours later. After an hour of pushing the midwives got one of the doctors in to assist. Her name was [name]. When I told the midwife about her, this doctor was recently employed by the trust and was on placement and should have been supervised. She came in, turned the lights on, going all guns blazing, saying to the midwives ‘I may sound bossy but that’s how I am’.

I ended up having forceps.

As soon as my baby arrived, she was whisked away by the midwives and had her vitamin K injection. [Female doctor’s name] was beginning to remove my placenta. I suddenly heard a gasp, panic and ‘it broke’ which at this point I know something wasn’t right.

A senior doctor came in to support her (can’t remember her name) my placenta was broken up, so she had to give me an ultra sound to check it was all removed.

Fortunately it was fine. The senior doctor had to rush out as she had to do an emergency C section. [Female doctor name] started stitching me up, a minute later she then went ‘oh no’ that’s a tear and then called for another senior doctor [second male obstetrician name] he had a look and confirmed I had a third degree tear which was caused by the forceps so I had to go to theatre.

At this point I broke down as I wanted to feed by baby so my husband ended up giving her colostrum supported by the midwives. [female obstetrician name] was supervised by [second male obstetrician name] when I had the surgery and then stormed out once the surgery was done as she knew she cocked up.

When my husband and I revealed this at the birth reflections clinic, this [female obstetrician name] has moved onto another trust so I don’t think she works at the Jr anymore but we were told she should have been supervised by a sensible doctor when carrying out the forceps, which didn’t happen.

We had a letter from the director of the women’s centre to apologise what had happened and it has been ‘reflected on’ but it can’t change how it the experience affected me.