World Class Maternity Services?

Neyite

EDIT:Posts have been split off from thread about Anomaly scans, to discuss our World Class Maternity Services

lazygal wrote: »

I'm glad I'm living somewhere with a choice of hospitals. World class maternity services my foot!

Oh its world class when compared with somewhere in the world, I'm sure. Or if the baseline is "not dead" as a successful outcome. :rolleyes: This "world class maternity service" is often trotted out but I've never seen the comparisons, statistics or surveys that support this claim*. The only people who trot out the claim of World Class are our politicians and the HSE, usually when defending a hospital fcuk up. Funny that.

I got a 20w anomaly scan in Galway. At the time they had done away with the 12 week one and just had the 20 week anomaly scan in standard cases. Public system. However I was also an endocrine patient so was lumped in with the diabetic mothers and got a lot more scans than the norm.

Now I think that they have reintroduced the 12 week one in UHG

Here's a little linky from last year from the Master of the Routuna addressing the Oireachteas.

*Actually, if anyone does have any links to stats on maternity care like that and how Ireland fares, please post them here or if you are a new user and cant, pm me and I'll be happy to do it.

fits

Neyite wrote: »

Or if the baseline is "not dead" as a successful outcome. :rolleyes: This "world class maternity service" is often trotted out but I've never seen the comparisons, statistics or surveys that support this claim*. .

Fintan O'Toole wrote about it during the week. Basically, the 'safest country in the world to give birth' thing is a load of baloney due to the fact that maternity deaths were recorded differently in statistics until recently.

http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/fintan-o-toole-pro-life-campaign-needs-to-get-its-facts-straight-1.2741868

StarBright01

pooch90 wrote: »

Can't believe it's so different to last year. I got my 20 week scan,no mention of anatomy scan then few days later got the letter for anatomy scan at 22 weeks. This was all September 2015,

I know its a disgrace. To be honest I'm trying not to get mad about it anymore I could feel my blood pressure rising earlier in rage! So I've booked my private scan and I'm trying to be content with that. This article is interesting if anybody fancies a read http://www.irishexaminer.com/viewpoints/analysis/babies-parents-and-cork-university-maternity-hospital-may-suffer-without-fetal-anomaly-scan-381890.html

"In 2008, just 10% of pregnant women were offered the scan. This had risen to 40% by 2014 and peaked at 70% by the end of 2015. Dr O’Donoghue, who oversaw and drove the improvement, says much of it was due to significant investment in staff training, re-scheduling timing of scans, reorganising the working of the foetal assessment unit and changing many work practices of the staff.

But what she is looking at now, with reduced staffing for 2016, is a serious backward slide in foetal anomaly scanning, from that 70% peak last year “back to around 30% of women attending.”

Neyite

http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/health-family/is-ireland-one-of-the-safest-places-to-have-a-baby-1.2114322

Actually, I'm wondering if I should split out these posts into a new thread about maternity services rather than keep them in the Pregnant Forum?

StarBright01

Neyite wrote: »

http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/health-family/is-ireland-one-of-the-safest-places-to-have-a-baby-1.2114322

Actually, I'm wondering if I should split out these posts into a new thread about maternity services rather than keep them in the Pregnant Forum?

Think thats a good idea Neyite!

cyning

I hate hearing that "world class maternity services" statement been thrown around. My experiences and that of many is the opposite. In Kerry there is no anomoly scan. I know a girl who delivered a baby with Downs and a massive heart defect: had she been in Dublin it would have been picked up on. It should have been picked up on regardless.

I was a high risk patient on both my pregnancies with no anomoly scan. I was in the high risk clinic. How is that right or OK?

eviltwin

I wonder what the criteria is in order to be considered 'world class'?

Is it dirty wards, lack of scans, two hour waits to see a doctor, being sent home a few hours post delivery because they need the bed, no one to one breastfeeding instruction, limited options for home birth, no access or support for those in need of abortion, over reliance on sections, over worked and under valued staff.....

I think world class is based on the number of maternal deaths which seems a funny way of qualifying it.... 'oh well, we didn't kill anyone today, we must be doing great'

StarBright01

cyning wrote: »

I hate hearing that "world class maternity services" statement been thrown around. My experiences and that of many is the opposite. In Kerry there is no anomoly scan. I know a girl who delivered a baby with Downs and a massive heart defect: had she been in Dublin it would have been picked up on. It should have been picked up on regardless.

I was a high risk patient on both my pregnancies with no anomoly scan. I was in the high risk clinic. How is that right or OK?

Its just terrible alright cyning. I was told in CUMH today that they were "too busy" to give an anomaly scan (20 week apt today). My scan lasted about 2 minutes Id say.

January

cyning wrote: »

I hate hearing that "world class maternity services" statement been thrown around. My experiences and that of many is the opposite. In Kerry there is no anomoly scan. I know a girl who delivered a baby with Downs and a massive heart defect: had she been in Dublin it would have been picked up on. It should have been picked up on regardless.

I was a high risk patient on both my pregnancies with no anomoly scan. I was in the high risk clinic. How is that right or OK?

That's not necessarily true. I have a friend who had a baby with Down's syndrome and a heart defect. She did not know beforehand, despite an anatomy scan, that the baby had a heart problem. In fact, after a debrief with the head sonographer she was told that the heart defect SHOULD have been picked up and wasn't sure why it wasn't as it was pretty clear to see on her ultrasound pictures that the defect was there. This was in the Rotunda.

afkasurfjunkie

January wrote: »

That's not necessarily true. I have a friend who had a baby with Down's syndrome and a heart defect. She did not know beforehand, despite an anatomy scan, that the baby had a heart problem. In fact, after a debrief with the head sonographer she was told that the heart defect SHOULD have been picked up and wasn't sure why it wasn't as it was pretty clear to see on her ultrasound pictures that the defect was there. This was in the Rotunda.

I wonder is it more of an ethos thing than anything in certain hospitals? Catholic hospitals not supplying anomaly scans that would encourage alternatives if such defects were picked up? Just a thought that crossed my mind in the past.

Neyite

eviltwin wrote: »

I wonder what the criteria is in order to be considered 'world class'?

Is it dirty wards, lack of scans, two hour waits to see a doctor, being sent home a few hours post delivery because they need the bed, no one to one breastfeeding instruction, limited options for home birth, no access or support for those in need of abortion, over reliance on sections, over worked and under valued staff.....

I think world class is based on the number of maternal deaths which seems a funny way of qualifying it.... 'oh well, we didn't kill anyone today, we must be doing great'

When I was in having my baby, one nursing assistant took my monkey bar on the second day post c-section, because "another woman needed it" I was too stunned to do more than bleat lamely at her that I needed it too. Still took it. Getting out of bed to go up to NICU every 3 hours took a while.

Another time NICU called me to do a feed at 11.30 am and the catering staff wouldn't leave a dinner for me while I was gone. They weren't allowed to leave the plate apparently. So they left me a sandwich instead. Then I got another sandwich at 4pm. And nothing else until 8am. Not even a cup of tea. I was breastfeeding so absolutely starving.

Because I was up and down to NICU breastfeeding, (and it was a good 10 min shuffle away and up a flight of stairs) often during the drugs rounds I'd be there so they never left my meds out for me. Probably so they wouldn't get nicked. So I'd get back, then realise they weren't there, shuffle up to the nurses station, wait about 10 mins for one of them to turn up, ask for it, and wait about another 20 mins at my bed for them to bring me them.

One woman on my ward had a baby with an angry looking ventouse mark on its head. Masses of visitors who would not fcuk off even though she was clearly shattered. At one point some twat lay on her bed mucky shoes and all while she went to the loo and she came back and had to sit on a hard chair for an hour while gob****e got a good rest. No staff said a word to him.

Neyite

afkasurfjunkie wrote: »

I wonder is it more of an ethos thing than anything in certain hospitals? Catholic hospitals not supplying anomaly scans that would encourage alternatives if such defects were picked up? Just a thought that crossed my mind in the past.

I don't think so. Galway is a pretty Catholic hospital - statues and alters on pretty much every ward and they always did the 20w scan. And I know of two cases of foetal conditions picked up on those scans and one of those was a FFA so the couple were advised of their options including how to go to the UK.

Now, I do suspect that some of their ante-natal policies, especially their early pregnancy unit are deliberately hands-off because it might lead to women asking for certain services not obtainable in the EPU. But that's only a suspicion based on my frequent frustrating visits there.

Wesser

One woman on my ward had a baby with an angry looking ventouse mark on its head. Masses of visitors who would not fcuk off even though she was clearly shattered. At one point some twat lay on her bed mucky shoes and all while she went to the loo and she came back and had to sit on a hard chair for an hour while gob****e got a good rest. No staff said a word to him.[/quote]


In fairness it's not really the staffs fault that she married a twat. They probably don't want to get involved in basic adult relationship etiquette as they might be told to Mind their own business.Surely one has to take personal responsibility somewhere.

Neyite

Wesser wrote: »

wrote:

One woman on my ward had a baby with an angry looking ventouse mark on its head. Masses of visitors who would not fcuk off even though she was clearly shattered. At one point some twat lay on her bed mucky shoes and all while she went to the loo and she came back and had to sit on a hard chair for an hour while gob****e got a good rest. No staff said a word to him.

In fairness it's not really the staffs fault that she married a twat. They probably don't want to get involved in basic adult relationship etiquette as they might be told to Mind their own business.Surely one has to take personal responsibility somewhere.

Its a ward hygiene issue, and a pretty big one. Outdoor shoes on a hospital bed transfer germs and all sorts of nasties. The same bed that a recuperating woman with presumably some form of stitches was sleeping in, or dressing her newborn on.

It seemed to be a brother or something, because I knew which one her husband was.

Macha

I am very glad I had my baby abroad. I have private insurance but where I live, I got 3 standard scans, a Downs test (nuchal+blood test) and a gestational diabetes test all included. If I'd wanted the more accurate Downs test it would have cost us 600 as it's not covered.

I saw my gynecologist every month and then every 2 weeks closer to the due date. I could email her any time I wanted with questions. I was monitored every 2 days after the date when I was overdue and had a scan 3 hours after my gynecologist decided I needed one to check why my baby was still so high (turned out be was in breech, which we later found out was because the cord was around his neck).

I had a tough cesarean and stayed 7 nights in hospital with my partner also staying the night in my bedroom. Because my baby was in NICU, we were offered extra nights add long as there was a free bed.

Moving into the Irish maternity system would scare the hell out of me.

fits

I am private but got weekly scans from week 7-12 and now fortnightly in second trimester. Great care so far to be honest but I am paying for it.

LirW

Macha wrote: »

I am very glad I had my baby abroad. I have private insurance but where I live, I got 3 standard scans, a Downs test (nuchal+blood test) and a gestational diabetes test all included. If I'd wanted the more accurate Downs test it would have cost us 600 as it's not covered.

I saw my gynecologist every month and then every 2 weeks closer to the due date. I could email her any time I wanted with questions. I was monitored every 2 days after the date when I was overdue and had a scan 3 hours after my gynecologist decided I needed one to check why my baby was still so high (turned out be was in breech, which we later found out was because the cord was around his neck).

I had a tough cesarean and stayed 7 nights in hospital with my partner also staying the night in my bedroom. Because my baby was in NICU, we were offered extra nights add long as there was a free bed.

Moving into the Irish maternity system would scare the hell out of me.

Out of curiosity: Did you have your baby in Germany or Austria?
I had my first in Austria and I'm currently pregnant with my second and definitely the last here in Ireland.
I'm public here and I was public in Austria as well... had an excellent service in Austria pretty much the way you described it.
After the delivery I wanted to be discharged earlier and definitely will do it again if I have the chance to. Very happy about the fact I already have a child. Because after reading the stories here on boards and in the news I'm terrified of what could happen, nobody told me there is nothing wrong with asking for private scans.

Just the waiting times, I remember them being quite long in Austria as well, especially when you have to go to a weekly check-up later on or every second day when I was over due.

lazygal

I went private and having had some experience of the public wards I'm very glad I did. I know I got better care in the private system and I wouldn't have coped post c section without my own room and higher levels of staff care. I know plenty of women say they couldn't find fault with their care but I could. I'd recommend everyone keep a close eye on your notes and question everything.
The public health nurse system post natal wise is another mixed bag. Really outdated advice and downright misleading information from some nurses.

Macha

@LirW I'm in Belgium. It would be considered quite pro-intervention but I prefered to say no than to feel like I was asking for extras.

Call me Al

Macha wrote: »

I am very glad I had my baby abroad. I have private insurance but where I live, I got 3 standard scans, a Downs test (nuchal+blood test) and a gestational diabetes test all included. If I'd wanted the more accurate Downs test it would have cost us 600 as it's not covered.

I saw my gynecologist every month and then every 2 weeks closer to the due date. I could email her any time I wanted with questions. I was monitored every 2 days after the date when I was overdue and had a scan 3 hours after my gynecologist decided I needed one to check why my baby was still so high (turned out be was in breech, which we later found out was because the cord was around his neck).

I had a tough cesarean and stayed 7 nights in hospital with my partner also staying the night in my bedroom. Because my baby was in NICU, we were offered extra nights add long as there was a free bed.

Moving into the Irish maternity system would scare the hell out of me.

I was private too in Mount Carmel (no longer a maternity hospital) and much of this consultant interaction and treatment was similar to my experience so the Irish (private) system did work as I expected.

But I did explain in the other thread an encounter I had with the sonographer 're a nuchal fold scan and it made me extremely wary and aware of my environment and the attitudes of staff for my pregnancy. I was more aware that should anything go awry with my health what would be standard procedures in the UK (where we had left) might not be the case here.

mirrorwall14

I was public in the Combe recently, baby is now 18 months. I had quite a few issues in pregnancy with several admissions and I have to say I was very very happy with the care prenatal. Having said that I was very involved and paid close attention to my chart and clearly knew exactly what was going on. Birth was incredibly short and fairly traumatic (recorded delivery of 1hr and I was an inpatient) but again I had no issues.

Post natal however was a complete joke. Totally understaffed. No instruction for parents. First bath for first time parents only given by a trainee midwife and no opportunity for parents to be supervised bathing. No reminders for anyone else. Plus because some gob****e lady second time mum kicked up a fuss they delayed mine and my husband wasn't there because they had kicked him out for meal time. I still do all the baths because he's terrified of them. Meds were constantly late and I had to request them the whole time. Ridiculous rules such as dinner at the table even though there wasn't enough chairs or table space for the six on the ward. Nothing on your bed table allowed even though there was no space for anything and if you had brought everything on the hospital checklist I think you'd have had to hang things off the ceiling. Being given out to because we didn't fill in the food/nappy chart even though no one had told us to and I had kept the record on an app anyways for myself. Exceptionally patronising and rude talk about sexual health. Little to no help for breast feeding mothers and zero instruction for bottle feeding parents (I had to do bottles due to meds). Nobody checked my stitches after the first 12hrs and I include my GP in that. And the absolute worst is the lack of food between 4pm and 8am. I have never been so hungry and that was even though I had brought cereal bars! I have no idea how anyone breastfeeding didnt keel over. Honestly if I go again I will be looking for release ASAP just to get out of that.

m'lady

My God, just read through this thread and it has scared the hell out of me! Has anyone any experience with Cavan General Maternity?
I had my daughter in the Rotunda 15 years ago, so there's no point in sharing my experience!

mirrorwall14

m'lady wrote: »

My God, just read through this thread and it has scared the hell out of me! Has anyone any experience with Cavan General Maternity?
I had my daughter in the Rotunda 15 years ago, so there's no point in sharing my experience!

M'lady you are more likely to hear the bad than the good here. Even though I hated the post natal ward I had exceptional care on the public system up until then. I had multiple scans and grown scans. An admission for a serious asthma attack which my GP didn't medicate because he was afraid to. Admissions for bleeds And anti D. And finally high blood pressure. They were great.

The only thing that I cried over was at the end. I was due to be induced the next week. I was admitted for HBP on Friday and had to do the 24hr collection. I was just a fraction below the cutoff for definite induction and the nurse said if it hadn't been the weekend I'd have been induced. I was sent home instead to come back 48hrs later. I was really stressed with that one because you are afraid something will go wrong and sick of being pregnant. As it happens once I got in for the induction my BP stabilised. The care really was great pre natal.

Keep an eye on your chart. Ask for everything to be explained and prenantal will be fine in my experience. Post natal bear in mind those who shout the loudest seem to get the best care even if it's not with the best grace due to staffing

Neyite

m'lady wrote: »

My God, just read through this thread and it has scared the hell out of me! Has anyone any experience with Cavan General Maternity?
I had my daughter in the Rotunda 15 years ago, so there's no point in sharing my experience!

Like mirror says, its really only when you land back home or maybe share stories with other mums that you look back and think "eh, whut??" You are in your lovely newborn fog at the time. But don't be afraid to be assertive.
My care overall was excellent. The important stuff - the delivering of the baby and my surgery was extremely professional. All along they explained what they wanted to do and why and carefully went through my options with me. I had an EMCS and they were totally on the ball with regard to monitoring him prior to that because there was meconium and induction wasn't working. As soon as his heartbeat started to give distress signals they whipped me off for my EMCS and we were all prepared for that. And baby was safely delivered. My wound also healed perfectly with no issues and whoever did the stitches should teach a masterclass in sewing. I can barely see my scar now.

Its the smaller stuff that's frustrating - the overcrowded wards, lack of post natal staff, the lack of adherence to visiting hours, visitors being let have the run of the place, staff banging and crashing around. Those are the things that give you the bad impression. The day I was due to be discharged I was showered, dressed and packed by about 7.30am. I was terrified of bringing baby home on my own but I just wanted peace and quiet to get some sleep!

January

Neyite wrote: »

Its the smaller stuff that's frustrating - the overcrowded wards, lack of post natal staff, the lack of adherence to visiting hours, visitors being let have the run of the place, staff banging and crashing around. Those are the things that give you the bad impression. The day I was due to be discharged I was showered, dressed and packed by about 7.30am. I was terrified of bringing baby home on my own but I just wanted peace and quiet to get some sleep!

Ha, I was the same packed and all by about 8am. I didn't get out until closer to 5.30pm though because of docs taking their sweet ass time to come and give us the all clear to leave.

rainbow kirby

I had my son in the UK - everything except the one night I spent on the postnatal ward was really good. 12 and 20 week scans were standard for everyone (with the 12 week scan in a tight timeframe to make sure they could get the nuchal fold and blood tests in for the Downs screening), with a lot of the women on the consultant-led service getting a 32 week growth scan as well. The prenatal testing booklet which arrived in the post when I was around 10 weeks was quite matter-of-fact about TFMR as an option in the case where it was an appropriate choice.

I was on the midwife-led service as I was low risk, all my appointments were in a community setting (midwife clinic rooms in a local children's centre). There was always 30 minutes scheduled for each appointment and never had to wait more than around 15 minutes beyond that if the midwife was running late. They were pretty good at scheduling my appointments around work too - a lot of mine were at 9-10am or else after 4pm.

My son was born in the birth centre and the birth centre midwives were really fantastic, even if the end birthing position did end up requiring one of them to have the strength of a rugby player! :pac: We had the suite for 12 hours after the birth, with a double bed, food being brought to us, very few interruptions unless absolutely needed. Plenty of breastfeeding help when needed - my son was slow to latch so I was helped to express colostrum into little syringes for him and then on the second day the Islington peer supporters from the Breastfeeding Network were on the ward (NCT ones for Haringey women too) and able to help out anyone who needed it.

I think postnatal wards the world over are crap unless you get a private room. The ward wasn't that busy when I was there - my son was born on Easter Monday so fewer elective sections scheduled for the bank holiday weekend, but it was still hard to sleep because of all the noise and lights, and being woken up for observations just after I'd actually gotten asleep! Could hear everything in the cublcles next to me, all the gory details of what sounded like a horribly traumatic birth being discussed over and over again with lots of doctors and physios traipsing in and out of the next cubicle. We went home the evening after he was born, and I was glad to be back in my own bed! We were sent back up though by the community midwife when my son was 3 days old because his jaundice needed phototherapy, he had lost 12% of his birth weight and his blood sugar was quite low. Thankfully for the 2 nights we were in that time we had a private room on the children's ward and I had a single bed beside the cot. We had more help from the breastfeeding peer supporters there too and was able to get a breast pump to the room as well to try and move away from the formula top-ups we were getting.

I'd feel much happier having #2 here than going back home tbh.

LirW

rainbow kirby wrote: »

I think postnatal wards the world over are crap unless you get a private room. The ward wasn't that busy when I was there - my son was born on Easter Monday so fewer elective sections scheduled for the bank holiday weekend, but it was still hard to sleep because of all the noise and lights, and being woken up for observations just after I'd actually gotten asleep! Could hear everything in the cublcles next to me, all the gory details of what sounded like a horribly traumatic birth being discussed over and over again with lots of doctors and physios traipsing in and out of the next cubicle. We went home the evening after he was born, and I was glad to be back in my own bed! We were sent back up though by the community midwife when my son was 3 days old because his jaundice needed phototherapy, he had lost 12% of his birth weight and his blood sugar was quite low. Thankfully for the 2 nights we were in that time we had a private room on the children's ward and I had a single bed beside the cot. We had more help from the breastfeeding peer supporters there too and was able to get a breast pump to the room as well to try and move away from the formula top-ups we were getting.

This is so true: I believe in every clinic ever post natal wards will be stressful unless you are there private. I had to share a room with 4 other women and even though all of them were lovely, it was so stressful altogether, the ward being understaffed and overcrowded didn't help and this time I'm focusing on an early discharge (Rotunda offers that) if possible.

LegacyUser

Good God Mirrorwall, that sounds nuts.

I was in the Rotunda semi private in 2014 and 2016. Both births were pretty good. Gas and air and one midwife, very little intervention or interference. Couple of hours in the delivery rooms with just ourselves afterwards, no problems.

No. 1 became trickier in the following 48 hours. I was in a ward with 2 other people, but it was small enough. No. 1 had to go to NICU about 24 hours after birth due to dehydration. I hadn't slept in those 24 hours, so I was completely addled. She was brought back to me the next day, and she was given antibiotics for a further 36 hours. Then it got trickier again - more blood tests were taken and I was told she would possibly be in for a further 5 days for drugs. I hit the ceiling at this point. It wasn't that there was anything wrong with that, it was just the absolute struggle to get information was nothing short of totally frustrating. I wanted to scream. Add to the fact that I like my privacy, I didn't sleep at all and the baby blues were hitting in a confined space where I was struggling to manage, I had a complete meltdown. As I said to the nurses, it wasn't that I didn't think I could cope - I just couldn't cope THERE. Thank God for the appearance of an amazing midwife 5 days after the birth who informed me there was no way I should be still there, both I and the baby were fine, and she pretty much frogmarched a senior paediatric consultant into the cubicle to discharge us. The consultant was superb - finally someone who actually gave us information.

Unfortunately due an infection I was back the following week myself!!! Same again - waiting, struggling to get information, fighting to get to see the necessary medical staff who could make the decisions. Ridiculous situation where even I knew what the problem and solution were, yet I sat in a bed for 4 days while the midwives chased a doctor to get a scan and make a decision. Beyond headwrecking.

No.2 was a dream in comparison. Gas and air, midwife in attendance,5 hour labour, out she came, big 4 person ward and discharged the next day. I actually couldn't believe it, was waiting for the axe to fall for about 2 weeks afterwards!

Mirrorwall your situation sounds crazy. I was the exact opposite in nearly everything, meals at the table on the bed, catering people appear with scones and tea and biscuits and soup in between all main meals, stitches checked after birth and before discharge, midwives fill in all charts themselves (why are you doing it??) - that whole thing sounds nuts.

In general I can't fault the care. Even in hindsight. Where the problems arose they were almost always as a result of low staff numbers. And let's face it, that's not the midwives faults.There was (I thought) an issue with communication between midwife and doctor staff, it could be very hit and miss (again, possibly due to being overworked, although I'm not sure). Pre-natal care was excellent. I will say that keeping a tight eye on your notes and asking every question that pops into your head is something to keep in mind.

galah

I can only relay what i hear from friends in Germany as i had both kids here, but the care in general over there is miles ahead. You have your own midwife throughout the pregnancy, supported by regular gynae visits (not the GP but a proper gynaecologist); two bed wards are about the worst you can find (when i told my gynae about the abysmal six bed wards here he was horrified and mumbled something about conditions forty years ago!), and usually you get a family room so the partner can stay overnight ( here partners are usually booted out before midnight - i had my first via emergency section just before midnight and my husband wasnt allowed to stay - leaving me in a state post-op with a newborn, not ideal...).

The facilities in uhg can best be described as disgusting - the toilets are nasty, and the showers way too small, especially if you just had a section and can barely move. Food is another issue here - no fresh fruit or veg, all processed within an inch of its life - how you're getting your streght back up after labour with that muck is a riddle.

I cannot fault the staff in fairness, although it would be great if they were less stressed and had more time for each patient; they do seem quite overworked. One thing that annoyed was the inconsistent approach to breastfeeding and other things - some nurses quite militant while others were happy to push formula.

I must say if we were ever to have another child (unlikely :pac:) i'll rather have it in Germany if i had the choice...

mirrorwall14

I genuinely do not get the no partners overnight when on the labour ward. I can understand a STFU rule that if you want to talk go for a walk and no talking on the ward but I went into extremely fast labour at 5am and wasn't allowed call my husband. I was having contractions every 60-90 seconds immediately and the babys heart rate was poor and I still hadn't dilated at all. I was on a trace in bed for 45 minutes mostly on my own while they called docs/checked labour ward for space and at one point I was hyperventilating (very bad-I'm an asthmatic) with the stress and pain of it all. I cried with relief when I was allowed ring him at 6 to say I was being transferred. I'm not exaggerating either, the actual recorded labour time is 1hr 12 minutes which for a first time mum is incredibly short.

What made the whole situation worse was that someones mother had been allowed to stay with her daughter (an adult) overnight, I have no idea how or why but she stuck her head around the curtain at one point to say how her daughter was getting an early epidural and wasn't I was doing great and it took everything in me to not say "I'M SUPPOSED TO BE GETTING ONE TOO YOU UTTER GOSBHITE. **** OFF I'M NOT ALLOWED HAVE MY HUSBAND HERE, HOW ARE YOU HERE?!? YOUR DAUGHTER ISN'T EVEN IN ****ING LABOUR". I was so clearly not doing great. Although funnily enough my anger got me through about three contractions before I lost control again. I nearly squeezed a midwives hand to death just before I was transferred. The only manageable contractions in the whole experience were when I was walking to the labour ward, I couldn't get into the chair. Having said all that, as I said above the care was excellent, they did get me to the labour ward as fast as possible and I managed to avoid a section despite the baby distress so it could have been worse.

Neyite

Galah - you've nailed it about UHG. The facilities are poor - I was in the "new" part but even then the showers and toilets were a bit grim. Well, I'm not a fan of public toilets anyway, but one toilet on the ward between 6 women and all their visitors using it too?? That single toilet per ward had to have been thought up by a man because any woman designing it would understand that for the first bowel movement after a baby (even a C-section, you are too sore to strain) you need peace and quiet and time to let your body do what it needs to do. Not some tosser of a visitor hammering on the door because the celebratory pints from the River Inn are needing to be drained off.

What baffled me was that there was a massive day room that stood empty day after day -perfect for visitors to talk to new mums, just wheel the bassinet in there and yap away to your hearts content with 20 of your closest family members. Not around the beds when women are trying to 'sleep when the baby sleeps'.

One kid was let run riot with her brother for hours- they were maybe age 7 or 8. They kept on pulling people's curtains and being loud and running around on the ward. The toilet was engaged for ages so I pulled my curtains to change a maternity towel. Little brat pulled my curtain wide open so at least two of the other bays, and their visitors saw me with my PJ's at my ankles, my knickers at my knees changing a used towel. Which the child saw, because she had a look of utter horror on her face. And if it scarred her for life, well, I cant say I really care all that much.

The ward sink was beside my bed. As was the bin - one of those where you open the lid with your foot on the bar. Every time that lid slammed, it would jolt me and the baby awake. His little fingers would flare out in a startle reflex and he would wail. Every time. The woman opposite had a cold. I was initially sympathetic to her plight wincing when she would sneeze or blow her nose. Problem was that every time (which was about every 5 mins) she would blow her nose, she'd get out of bed, put tissue in the bin, SLAM the lid, wash her hands, dry her hands on tissue, then open the bin and SLAM it again. Literally feet from me and my baby. Every.five.minutes. Only for my monkey bar was stolen and it was too hard and sore to get out of bed, I really wanted to stuff her in the bin head first.