"There seemed to be very little security on the ward"

I had a planned C Section 2 months ago now, the full experience from antenatal, to theatre and back to antenatal was all very positive, caring and nurturing. 

This experience took a drastic turn when I was transferred to the postnatal ward. Me and my newborn baby were in a shared room with 2 other new mums and newborn babies who’d also had C Sections within the past 24 hours. 

On transfer to the postnatal ward the experience with dayshift staff was great, all very attentive and caring. However, I unfortunately found the nightshift staff very unhelpful and rude. During the first night of having my baby, I buzzed several times for analgesia to which a midwife came to my bed space and turned the buzzer off and didn’t return with pain relief.

Later I then buzzed as I had slipped down to the bottom of the bed, had excruciating shoulder tip pain and was unable to move myself back up the bed or get out of the bed. It’s a key point that my baby was crying at this stage, this made me very upset as I was unable to get to him. When the midwife came to answer my buzzer I explained that I was unable to get up, was visibly upset and my baby was due to be fed to which the midwife responded that i'd get nowhere up the bed like that, i'd have to push myself up, and proceeded to leave the room without assisting me or seeing to my upset baby.

I disliked having to do this but I then buzzed again as things were only getting worse, this time one of the wards maternity care assistants attended to me, she explained that she was going to get help, the 2 of the maternity care assistants returned, helped me up to sit on the edge of the bed, provided me with non medicinal relief for my pain and also attended to my newborn baby. This maternity care assistant sat beside me, fed my baby for me and ensured that I was okay as well as she could see that I was very upset.   

Fast forward to the morning where my birthing partner returned to the ward in the hopes of us being discharged.  After my baby’s checks were completed we were told that we were free to go. At this point I had my baby in the car seat ready to leave, as first time parents we had no idea if our baby was positioned safe and tight enough in his car seat. We had to find a member of staff to help us with this which took a while as there was no staff around.

Upon leaving the ward again, there was no staff around. This highlights a massive safety concern as there seemed to be very little security on the ward with visitors entering and patients with newborn babies leaving.