"Very disappointed at the care"

 I was very disappointed at the care I received during my time using the maternity services.

1st issue was actually pre birth during my scans. I had a sonographer who caused me quite a lot of pain while they were scanning me (other staff members didn't cause me any pain), they also made the scans unpleasant with their attitude and refused to write down our child's gender as we were undecided if we actually wanted to know (midwives had suggested and advised this was something they could do, we wouldn't have thought of this ourselves). I would dread going for the 2 weekly scans hoping I didn't get this sonographer. All other sonographers were great.

The next issues are related to my labour and postnatal care. 

I felt I was pushed into being induced, they put the fear into me that if I didn't things would go very wrong, my water had started to leak and they wanted me in and on the drip. 

The labour ward was empty that night except for me, I had 3 midwives in the time it took me to have my baby. 2 midwives were great, one not so much. 

There were issues with the hormone drip, they could only get me to a 4 and had to keep dropping me back down to 1 as was causing the baby distress and me to constantly contract without a break. I was in a lot of pain, midwife did nor seem interested in the slightest, they spent more time out of the room than in it, when with me they had their back to me while sat facing the computer they weren't using. I kept asking questions as I was scared that something was wrong as the pain was bad, but they ignored me. The only times they interacted with me was when another professional came in and then all of a sudden they were a bit more attentive, it came across very fake. I felt they lacked empathy and care and seemed to not want to be there. An annoying niggle was also the fact they were chewing gum the whole time and I was starving as was nil by mouth and the smell in my face made me feel hungry. They also kept going on breaks and talking to people who came in.

I later found out that I had made progress dilating to 7cm on my own as the midwife had forgotten to turn on the hormone drip, so I'd been doing it alone for hours.

Also during this midwife's care I was told I'd need an epidural as they did keep turning my drip up high even though I'd told them it was too much. During the epidural they offered me no support, my partner had to step in and said he'd never seen me in such a state. The anaesthetist that came took 5 attempts to place the epidural, I was sat hunched over for an hour while they kept trying. At this time the drip was turned up and I was constantly contracting (my partner said I'd zoned out and just looked blank at this point as I was in so much pain). After the 5th attempt they called a consultant who placed it 1st go, the anaesthetist said it was because the were using a new kit that they were unfamiliar with, as their excuse. I found the whole procedure quite traumatic as I could feel the blood leaking down my back and the multiple attempts left a huge bruise on my back.

They put the flush through and it worked, but they forgot to turn the actual epidural machine on, which we later discovered when i told them the pain was back.

The midwife and the dr measured my dilation differently, the midwife said  they were happy with the progress, the dr said they thought progress was less than what the midwife said and then started to push for a c section, although the midwife thought I could hang on. I opted to wait, the dr came back later and then pushed again for c section as they didn't think i was passing enough urine, but I also hadn't drunk anything.

Ended up having the c section as didn't appear to have much other option. 

I had asked for skin to skin, there were no problems with my baby and yet I was not given him and only saw a glimpse of him until I got into my room some time later, he was instead given to my partner. 

Later i was moved into G2 where the care went substantially downhill. I was ignored about my pain which turned into ileus. I was given bad advice and no care was offered for my baby when I could no longer look after him myself. I was not able to change my sanitary pad, brush my teeth or do any other basic hygiene. I was given wrong medication and then not given pain meds when needed. They tried to rush me past the next stages of the ileus as it started to improve, which I feel was so they could get me out of hospital quicker, they took me off iv meds and made me take them orally even after I had warned them they would upset my gut and I wasn't happy to do this. Sadly I then got the ileus back and ended up spending 10 days in hospital because of it. I then complained of chest pains and that same day they said I was being discharged. No advice given, no help, i went home not knowing how to move forward from my ileus, what to eat, plus other issues. Very unhappy.