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Share your experience
Have you been failed by OUH maternity services?
Families tell us all the time that they haven't been listened to by Oxford University Hospitals' maternity staff. But your experience is vital in shaping the change we're demanding - and you deserve to be heard.
Below you'll see experiences of families who have been failed. If you feel able to, please share yours.
Our voices are louder together.
You can share your experience anonymously - simply leave the contact boxes blank. If you're happy for us to get in touch, please provide your name and email address.
For safeguarding reasons, any names included in testimonials published on this site will be anonymised.
Testimonies
"I get that the NHS is strained but my word, treating a person like a human being and showing empathy and care should be a given"
A mother's experience of Oxford University Hospitals Maternity Services in 2024: I was already feeling quite nervous about giving birth...
2 days ago
"They objected to helping me care for my baby even when I couldn't move"
A mother's experience of Oxford University Hospitals Maternity Services in 2022 and 2024: I have twice given birth at the JR, in 2022 and...
2 days ago
"they told me it was one of the largest cases of anal prolapse they had seen"
A mother’s experience of Oxford University Hospitals Maternity Services in 2012: I initially thought I was just very unlucky — a one-off...
6 days ago
"I can tell you for a fact that the maternity services need a serious overhauling."
A mother’s experience of Oxford University Hospitals Maternity Services in 2023: I’m a nurse in the JR and I can tell you for a fact that...
6 days ago
"Being left in a room, with no help, no painkiller and no idea what was happening to me was terrifying"
A mother’s experience of Oxford University Hospitals Maternity Services in 2018: I had a very traumatic birth with my first child. I went...
6 days ago
"baby was suffocating, he had forceps and a few other tools to pull him out. I've been left with being incontinent"
A mother’s experience of Oxford University Hospitals Maternity Services in 2019 and 2023: My now 6 year old was born in 2019 at just 24...
6 days ago
"I was left uncared for and completely traumatised"
A mother’s experience of Oxford University Hospitals Maternity Services in 2025: I had a problem free c section but then was sent to...
6 days ago
"I gave birth to another little boy who only lived for 5 five minutes...I have never been the same since."
A mother’s experience of Oxford University Hospitals Maternity Services in 2013 and 2015: Listening to the news earlier today about the...
6 days ago
"I came across some of the worst workers I’ve encountered in the health service who are failing mothers and their babies."
A mother’s experience of Oxford University Hospitals Maternity Services in 2018 and 2020: I had a horrendous experience in 2018 with the...
6 days ago
"I'd lost so much blood before they realised what was happening."
A mother’s experience of Oxford University Hospitals Maternity Services in 2017: I had a massive internal bleed after an emergency...
6 days ago
"My mum used to be a midwife and described the whole thing as barbaric"
A mother’s experience of Oxford University Hospitals Maternity Services in 2024: I arrived at the Women's Centre on a stormy December...
6 days ago
“I have never EVER experienced care like it. It’s so degrading, careless and humiliating.”
A mother’s experience of Oxford University Hospitals Maternity Services in 2024: My labour was long and traumatic as a first-time mum....
6 days ago
“I have a lifelong injury thanks to a poorly managed forceps delivery...I spent years crippled with pain, barely existing"
A mother’s experience of Oxford University Hospitals Maternity Services in 2013: I have a lifelong injury thanks to a poorly managed...
6 days ago
"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...
6 days ago
"I can categorically say it was the worst time of my life"
A mother’s experience of Oxford University Hospitals Maternity Services in 2014-15: I gave birth to my daughter in 2015. It’s all a bit...
6 days ago
“I overhead the registrar mutter to the midwife that I should have had a caesarean two days ago.”
A mother’s experience of Oxford University Hospitals Maternity Services in 2019: My first child was born in the John Radcliffe in 2019....
6 days ago
"I was rushed to see [obstetrician name] who said he could see from my notes that 'we were pissing each other off'"
A mother's experience of Oxford University Hospitals Maternity Services in 2020: I’m now ready to share my story. I need to disclose that...
Aug 22
"I was waiting two hours in the most unimaginable pain, my eyes were rolling to the back of my head"
A mother's experience of Oxford University Hospitals Maternity Services in 2025: 1. When I arrived, I was given my first midwife who was...
Aug 22
"the JR, in my opinion, was disgraceful and not fit for purpose."
A mother's experience of Oxford University Hospitals Maternity Services in 2025: I had a traumatic and rushed labour at the JR back in...
Aug 22
"Another 30 mins, I’d have died."
A mother's experience of Oxford University Hospitals Maternity Services in 2007: Emergency c-section. Left in ward with no obs being...
Aug 22
"I drained the catheter myself at home to remove it because I couldn't take the pain anymore"
A mother's experience of Oxford University Hospitals Maternity Services in 2020: I gave birth to my first child in November 2020. I...
Aug 20
"We won a court case against the hospital to provide medical care for him. They admitted negligence."
A mother's experience of Oxford University Hospital Maternity Services in 2004: In 2004 my twins were born at the JR. Twin 1 was...
Aug 20
"I begged them to do a scan to check where her head was"
A mother's experience of Oxford University Hospitals Maternity Services in 2017: I was induced into labour even though my daughter's head...
Aug 20
"My boy would have been 16. That hospital failed me from start to finish."
A mother's experience of Oxford University Hospitals Maternity Services in 2009: JR Hospital failed to notice severe abnormalities with...
Aug 20
"I’ve burst into tears reading these experiences. I felt I’ve been suffering in silence for years"
A mother's experience of Oxford University Hospitals Maternity Services in 2022 and 2024: I’ve burst into tears reading these...
Aug 20
"my son had died and my world shattered. The hospital missed the window to save him."
A mother's experience of Oxford University Hospitals Maternity Services in 2020: I had a very complicated pregnancy from early on, so I...
Aug 20
"I asked again and again... they said they don't really have ultrasounds in this ward."
A mother's experience of Oxford University Hospitals Maternity Services in 2022: 3 years ago today I was meant to go on a babymoon...
Aug 20
"My husband had to literally beg the midwives to come and check me and give me pain relief"
A mother's experience of Oxford University Hospitals Maternity Services in 2024: I was lucky enough to be signed off to have an elective...
Aug 20
"they [OUH staff] wouldn't recommend me having a baby at the hospital as nothing was in a good state."
A mother's experience of Oxford University Hospitals Maternity Services in 2023: I gave birth at the JR after being transferred from the...
Aug 20
"the midwife said I couldn’t have an elective c section because I had no medical grounds to"
A mother's experience of Oxford University Hospitals Maternity Services in 2019-2020: From the moment I had my first midwife appointment...
Aug 18
"'I’ve been trying to tell you something was wrong, I knew something was wrong.'"
A mother's experience of Oxford University Hospitals Maternity Services in 2018 and 2024: My husband and I experienced serious and...
Aug 14
"to lose my child and almost lose my life after all the discomfort that came with my pregnancy is very scary and painful"
A mother's experience of Oxford University Hospitals Maternity Services in 2020 and 2023: I lost my first baby in 2020 after going into...
Aug 14
"the aftercare was so bad I could cry thinking about it"
A mother's experience of Oxford University Hospitals Maternity Services in 2021 and 2024: I have given birth to both my sons there and...
Aug 13
" I apparently lost 1.25L of blood. I was not offered any blood products to aid my recovery"
A mother's experience of Oxford University Hospitals Maternity Services in 2022: I have a complaint/concerns about the community...
Jul 20
"a plastic cap at the end of the syringe was squirted into the mouth of [son’s name]. He swallowed the cap"
A mother's and father's experience of Oxford University Hospitals Maternity Services in 2023: Unfortunately, we struggled to conceive a...
Jul 20
"everybody [staff] was happy, chatting away while I was vomiting and choking on my own vomit"
A mother's experience of Oxford University Hospitals Maternity Services in 2020: I gave birth in the JR delivery suite in the autumn of...
Jul 20
"I was told that a planned C-section wasn’t available"
A mother's experience of Oxford University Hospitals Maternity Services in 2018: My Birth Trauma Story In June 2018, I found out I was...
Jul 18
"There was a complete lack of respect and decency towards us"
A father's experience of Oxford University Hospitals Maternity Services in 2025: Our newborn twins have been clearly unsettled during the...
Jul 18
"It was only when the sheets became soaked with blood that I felt I was being listened to"
A mother's experience of Oxford University Hospitals Maternity Services in 2009: I had my first child in June 2007 weighing 6lb 9oz...
Jul 17
"No one came and I kept knocking it [cannula] so removed it myself"
A mother's experience of Oxford University Hospitals Maternity Services in 2024: I had a planned c section with my 2nd child due to being...
Jul 17
"A midwife laughed when she saw the amount of blood and told me it was nothing"
A mother's experience of Oxford University Hospitals Maternity Services in 2024: 12 week scan, so anxious. I told the sonographer how I...
Jul 17
"My basic needs were not met. I went without food for 24 hours"
A mother's experience of Oxford University Hospitals Maternity Services in 2024: If I had to describe my experience on the postnatal...
Jul 17
"when they sewed me up, I felt every stitch"
A mother's experience of Oxford University Hospitals Maternity Services in 2024: Prenatal care was fine. Postnatal was horrible for me....
Jul 17
"I begged them to save my daughter but they didn’t"
A mother's experience of Oxford University Hospitals Maternity Services in 2025: I lost my 29 week old little girl because no one acted...
Jul 13
"26 years on, I still have psychological trauma"
A mother's experience of Oxford University Hospitals Maternity Services in 1999: I was 42+ weeks gestation and throughout my pregnancy...
Jul 13
"Turns out my son was given untested breast milk"
A mother's experience of Oxford University Hospitals Maternity Services in 2021/22: My son was born prematurely at 33 weeks. My prenatal...
Jul 13
"I have copies of maternity records that have been crossed out and changed"
A mother’s experience of Oxford University Hospitals Maternity Services in 2018: I had my son on the 1st July 2018. My waters had broken...
Jul 7
"It felt cold. It felt careless. And I felt invisible"
A mother’s experience of Oxford University Hospitals Maternity Services in 2025: I’ve gone back and forth about whether to share this....
Jul 7
"That was an extremely traumatic experience"
A mother’s experience of Oxford University Hospitals Maternity Services in 2021: My son was stillborn at 29 weeks while I was on...
Jul 7
"The first pair of forceps were broken and the excruciating pain of them trying to make them work while they were inside of me is still something I can feel today"
A mother’s experience of Oxford University Hospitals Maternity Services in 2018: I had my daughter at OUH in 2018. I’d been in labour...
Jun 28
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