"Let down by postnatal care"

Firstly, I had excellent maternity care throughout my pregnancy and labour at East Surrey until being moved to the post-natal ward, Burstow.

I found the care there inefficient and neglectful at times, and the discharge process was a shambles. With my baby showing slightly unusual obs post-birth we were transferred to Special Care the morning after birth. He was monitored and taken excellent care of there and we were with them for a number of hours before being transferred back to Burstow. Upon arrival my bloodied bedsheets were still on the bed. I missed lunch due to moving between wards and was not offered anything else all day, including water. Luckily my partner was back and forth to the hospital and was able to buy me snacks and get me water.

The food situation on ward is atrocious for new mums. Breakfast is toast or a stale croissant accompanied with butter and/or jam. No protein, no real fuel for new mums being encouraged to breastfeed by staff. One lunch was a turkey salad which I was looking forward to as one of the few healthy fresh options. What arrived was 3 slices of processed sandwich meat, with a handful of lettuce and half a tomato. There must have been less than 200 calories in this main meal, which again is completely unacceptable for new mums who need plenty of energy to care for their babies.

In addition to this, meals have to be collected by the mums themselves at each mealtime. For me this wasn’t an issue, however I witnessed multiple mums having just had c-sections and/or extremely sore stitches being told to go and collect their own trays. 

The discharge process is a story within itself. I was told on day 3 that we would have blood results back first thing in the morning, after which I would be discharged. After following up myself, it was confirmed at 8am that baby’s bloods were fine and we’d be signed off for discharge. Despite multiple follow ups we were then left in a room for hours with no care, and no explanation as to the delay.

At 3.30pm the paediatrician confirmed again bloods were fine and we could go, pending the documentation process by midwives. Initially we had been told the paediatrician would remove baby’s cannula but when checked with the paediatrician they said it would in fact be a midwife removing it. Having relayed this to the midwives ourselves (since communication was clearly lacking between all staff) we were met with surprise. After following up a number of times we were told that any staff member could do it and finally someone sat at the desk came and did it for us.

Even after this, our midwife was nowhere to be seen to sign us off to leave. Eventually at 5pm we were told that it was their first day and everything they were doing had to be signed off by a senior. So we were essentially held captive on the ward all day purely for admin purposes. Multiple parents were discharged ahead of us despite us being told that the delay was emergencies which take priority.

To say the process ruined what should be a happy day in taking baby home is an understatement. Instead of excitement we felt frustrated and neglected. The attitude of staff did not help, with some being extremely blunt. They clearly did not like our continuous follow ups, however this was our only communication with the team the entire day, initiated by us.

Such a shame that one ward lets down an entire maternity wing as the rest of our experience was very positive.