Complaint about maternity hospital

therealgirl

Hi,

I am unsure if this is the right place to post this...sorry if its not & it'd be much appreciated if it was moved to a more appropriate section.

I'll try keep this short & sweet!
I had my baby in a well known maternity hospital in Dublin...I really didn't think I'd ever be in a position to want to make a complaint about this hospital as everything regarding my care during my (difficult) pregnancy & delivery really was excellent...
Just after my baby was born the midwives noticed a tongue-tie...my other child had one also but I was very young having her & wasn't bothered about the problems it caused with breastfeeding...but this time I was determined to breast feed...I asked if they snip the tie or what & they told me they don't do that any more...that it was a procedure "from the dark ages" & wasn't necessary.

Ok, I was fine with that, baby tried latching on & seemed to be going ok, 4 days later we were discharged...that night & all the next day & night baby is screaming, floppy, sleeping alot...I phoned the hospital & spoke to a paediatrician & was told to come in straight away or take baby to the a&e of one of the childrens hospitals in Dublin....so I went to the maternity hospital & met the paediatrician & they started her on antibiotics & sent her to the childrens hospital...
Then she went all weird & floppy , needed O2 for her oxygen saturation, & was admitted ...there we stayed for 7 days, on antibiotics & fluids & worst of all three spinal taps to find an infection.
No infection was found.

She wont feed from the breast after 3 days of being in the childrens hospital, & on the 3rd night I am upset enough to ask for formula as I just want her to eat & get better! My milk supply isn't coming in much at this stage (it doesn't help that I have no baby on the breast to stimulate milk production, I tried pumping , got 1 oz after an hour)

Basically my baby is 9 weeks old not & it has been a struggle ever since to breastfeed...and even bottle feeding was a nightmare, formula streaming down her chin, getting frustrated while drinking....so I speak to my public health nurse & she puts me in touch with a GP who will snip tongue-ties (baby is 5 weeks old at this stage)...I go & get it snipped & baby latches onto breast properly!! Couldn't believe it....but I had a crappy milk supply.

I went to the baby clinic for a check up a few days ago & the paed there basically agreed she ended up in the childrens hospital because she wasn't being fed....

I am extremely angry that my baby had to have this start to life....five antibiotics over one week, three spinal taps over two days, STARVING!, weight loss, all because they don't snip a tiny little tongue tie after birth....the procedure is so simple its unbelievable..

I want to make my anger known to the maternity hospital...I want someone to be aware of the pain & anguish we went through...and are still going through as I try my hardest to get a bit of breastmilk into the child...

But I haven't a clue how to go about it or if I would even have a leg to stand on.

If anyone has any advice on how to go about making a formal complaint or any other advice I would very much appreciate it. I am waiting to see my public health nurse on Monday to ask her opinion. I suppose I am also a little scared as I am not very good at complaining & am afraid of being shot down if I confront the consultant as I am not medically minded, but I think this is something I have to make the hospital aware of.

Thanks!

amdublin

You could start by just writing a letter to them

MagicSean

My understanding is that the procedure is not performed unless the child shows difficulty feeding, or in later life speech. You indicate that his feeding was fine for the four days you were in the hospital so it seems they would have had no cause to perform the procedure. I would think you would have a problem claiming any kind of negligence here.

If i was in your place i would be more upset about the hospital who performed all those tests to diagnose a hungry baby.

wmpdd3

Did they do a blood sugar test? My baby was the same, i thought it was tongue tie but it turned out that it wasnt. if you ask on the newborns and toddlers forum, there are contact details for the hse person responcible for the promotion of breastfeeding in ireland. i think a letter to he would be a good place to start.

January

MagicSean wrote: »

My understanding is that the procedure is not performed unless the child shows difficulty feeding, or in later life speech. You indicate that his feeding was fine for the four days you were in the hospital so it seems they would have had no cause to perform the procedure. I would think you would have a problem claiming any kind of negligence here.

If i was in your place i would be more upset about the hospital who performed all those tests to diagnose a hungry baby.

I have to agree with this poster. At birth, my youngest also had a tongue tie and that they didn't snip them any more unless they were showing signs of poor feeding, or in later life, speech difficulty. That was fine, thankfully, my baby latched onto the breast properly and later, when I started bottle feeding, she was great at that too.

You said that your baby seemed to be doing well in hospital so how were the hospital to know she/he wasn't doing ok? It was when you were at home these problems pronounced themselves, this is not the hospitals fault, neither is it your fault though.

therealgirl

All they check in the hospital after birth is wet & dirty nappies & looking to feed regularly, then if they are unsure they check blood sugar levels...

I told them she is on the breast literally all the time, falling asleep on the breast within a few minutes & I thought it was weird she never got satisfaction enough to sleep then wake for a feed as would be normal, even if it was every hour...

they said it was a newborn thing to feed all the time...she had some wet nappies, never full...they said that was fine...I wasn't convinced.

Her blood sugar was low when she was seen to on her fifth day, they said this is 'because she hadn't fed properly since we left the hospital' (I had logged every feed and wet & dirty nappy since our arrival home as I wasn't sure she was acting normally, she was pretty cranky in the run up to being discharged from the hospital, slightly yellow in her skin colour, a few midwives commented on it, saying "that baby is jaundiced looking", we still got discharged).

They started her on antibiotics straight away as they said they don't take any chances with possibility of infection in newborns...antibiotics started...the next day her first 2 spinal taps...the day after another one.

I mentioned the tongue tie several times to her team of doctors in the childrens hospital...said she was extremely upset on the breast...they stuck a finger in her mouth & said she has a strong suck.

A few weeks later when I saw the GP who deals with tongue ties all the time, tested her suck, watched her try to breastfeed, bottle feed & stuck a finger in her mouth, said that she has a strong suck but he can't believe she even gets much food during a feed (bottle or breast) as she can't 'cup' her tongue or raise it up to form a proper seal under the teat/nipple....

All this I tried to voice during our time in the maternity hospital & the childrens hospital. I was doubting myself after the midwife told me 'she will learn' & 'she's only new to the world'.

I listened to the professionals.

I do have a problem with how quickly she was treated for an infection even though there was none...on the other hand if she had one I would have been grateful for their swift response
(I watched my baby cousin go downhill in a matter of hours due to meningitis, so a quick response was all I focused on when my baby went floppy & stopped breathing, that nearly killed me, so when they are telling you it must be an infection of some sort that's what you think is wrong too...regardless of how many times your idea of her not feeding due to her tongue, is shot down.)

Thanks for the responses to my post, maybe I am blinded by anger & too willing to argue my point, but I do believe my child could have had a simpler start to life & had the opportunity to be a breastfed baby if it hadn't been for the hospitals ignorance towards tongue ties...she gets fed from the breast twice in a day now, her latch is perfect since the snip, but my supply is proving to be difficult.

As for only snipping them if there is obvious feeding problems & speech problems in the future...there was an obvious feeding problem, obvious to me in the first 2 weeks, and not obvious to the medical professionals until after...after I had to physically show my public health nurse how bad she is at feeding...
I just remembered while typing this...my GP couldn't give me any advice on breastfeeding problems as ..."she doesn't know much about newborn babies or breastfeeding"...I wasn't impressed..just remembered that now as I only saw her once during all this.

As for the speech problems later in life...I have done my research & spoken to the GP about it (the one who snipped the tongue tie, not the other one obviously) and for the speech problem to be apparent the child is going to be a few months older where the policy is not to easily snip the tie in a GP's office but to use general anaesthesia in a hospital...I have a problem with the idea that it can be even left go to the stage of general anaesthesia & a hospital stay, especially if the parent has a problem with it when the baby is a newborn.

I appreciate everyone's arguments & advice

FreudianSlippers

Moved from Legal Discussion.

Gordon Gekko

FreudianSlippers wrote: »

Moved from Legal Discussion.

To Health & Fitness?

page1

They weigh the baby leaving the hospital, if they have lost more than 10% of their birth weight (indicating poor feeding) the baby will not be discharged.
How much weight had your baby lost?

Lola92

You could write a letter to the master of the hospital to notify them about the situation and the difficulties you encountered as a result of them not doing anything about the tounge-tie. I don't know if it will have any effect but better than doing nothing I guess.

btkm8unsl0w5r4

Try Squats and Fish oil, that should sort it out, if not could be tight hamstrings.

wmpdd3

Mods, maybe move to newborns and toddlers?

Through a similar easy to fix problem, my first baby wasnt breastfed either and i accepted alot of wrong information from well meaning midwives and doctors. I really beat myself up about this. It was only when i had my son i realised how the issues could have been so different. I hope you can talk this over with your partner and get your voice heard so it doesnt eat you up when you could be enjoying your smally! Were you seen by a lactation consultant?

Dathai

Some good info here:

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/health/how_health_is_organised/making_a_complaint_about_the_health_service_executive.html

http://www.ombudsman.gov.ie/en/InformationLeaflets/TheOmbudsmanandtheHealthServiceExecutive/Name,11094,en.htm

Brian?

Not really suitable to this forum, so I'm going to lock it for now and figure out where to move it.

xzanti

God I really feel for you and your baby the poor little thing having to go through all that misery, and you and your partner having to look on.. It must have been agonising for you.. Thank God you came through it..

Unfortunately it doesn't sound to me like you have much of a case against the Hospital.. I'm no law expert now but if the baby was feeding ok when you were both discharged, then I think they are pretty much covered..

Although, I would still write to the Master of the Hospital, if for no other reason than to let them know what happened and maybe they might review their policy on dealing with tongue tied babies in the future..

Hopefully yours was an isolated case but no family should have to go through that with a newborn baby.. that's horrendous..

liliq

I'm so sorry for all that you went through with your baby.

The tongue tie diagnosis was missed in a Dublin maternity for me as well, which resulted in 14 weeks of breastfeeding hell before I had it released by Dr. Roche in Clonmel after being diagnosed by Nicola O'Byrne, a fantastic lactation consultant.

The unfortuante reality is that midwives, pediatricians, PHNs, even many GP's, don't realise the impications of tongue tie, the likely difficulties with breastfeeding, and also with speech, dental problems, links to migraines etc., later on in life. I was told by more than one persons that tongue ties aren't a real issue at all.
The health professionals these days simply don't have the exposure to tongue tie problems, as they weren't as common an issue when artificial feeding was almost a universal way of feeding a baby.

What I did was write a letter to the master of the hospital (who was my consultant before becoming master, which worked out nicely for me!), not complaining, but just saying that this was what had happened, and it was a pity as the problems we encountered would have been so easily avoided if tongue tie (both anterior and posterior) was something midwives were trained to recognise.
Feeding often does go perfectly fine for the first week, or two, or three- the problems often occur when babies should be becoming more efficient at feeding, but aren't.

If you want help boosing your supply I have some places, people I could direct you too that might help (though you might be involved with some of them already anyway), PM me

How Strange

Ireland has a formula feeding culture so it's very unfortunate but not surprising that a lot of healthcare professionals don't see tongue tie as a problem. However it's really shocking how extreme your experience was just because of a lack of training within the maternity hospital. They have trained lactation consultants there and they should have referred you to them.

I'd also recommend you write to to the master of the hospital because if they're genuinely supportive of breastfeeding and their staff are supposed to be adequately trained then they should be aware of how to diagnose tongue tie and its consequences on breastfeeding.

I'd also go one step further and email Siobhan Hourigan, the HSE Breastfeeding coordinator and tell her your experience. She can then raise it at her next meeting. She is trying very hard to right the wrongs within our healthcare system as regards breastfeeding awareness and training so the more real cases she has the better. Her email is siobhan.hourigan@hse.ie

Hannibal Smith

If I was you OP, I'd write to the master of the hospital. If your baby was feeding well it's not surprising they sent you home. But I was in hospital with a woman who's baby was tongue tied and it was recommended that she formula feed rather than breastfeed. She saw lactation consultants and got plenty of advice and support from what I could see, so I think that's what you should have got. As far as I remember I think they were going to sort it out for her so she could continue breastfeeding? But I can't be certain of that.

At least if you write to them and explain what happened to you, first of all you'll feel better and second of all they might think twice about sending a baby home without being absolutely sure they are feeding well.

So sorry about the terrifying start you've all had and hope things have calmed for you now xx

therealgirl

Thank you all for the advice & support...I really needed to hash it out outside of my own head, as obviously its hard to see other perspectives when it comes to your own children.

I have written a letter to the master of the hospital, and I will email siobhan hourigan of the hse. Thanks for those details also.