"Aftercare following child birth"

We would like to start on a positive note especially for our midwife who was amazing. Our midwife in the labour ward at AMH, showed compassion and care throughout and even came to visit us our new born baby the day after. Their shift had ended before our daughter was born- we were gutted they finished before she was here.

Everybody and everything in the Labour ward was excellent. My wife's waters broke over 69 hours prior to giving birth which had caused concern for us. Labour was traumatic for her and baby, causing baby to be monitored while still inside using a fetal cap and blood tests on her scalp.

My wife had no sleep for 2 days before going to the Labour Ward due to pain down one side.

Morphine had been administered in Triage but to no effect. My wife going into her 3rd day of no sleep and in alot of pain went on to give birth following an epidural. She suffered urethral and perennial tears as a result, required a catheter to be fitted. This was my wife's first child and had previously miscarried twins the year before so was very stressed and anxious.

Aftercare in the Ashgrove ward was horrendous almost non existent. We were given a buzzer and told if we need anything we should just push it.

My wife was moved to the Ashgrove Ward only for me to be asked to leave as it was not visiting hours? How is this a thing, I am the father not a visitor. What makes this more infuriating is that we had friends in the maternity ward the exact same time who had a room to their own and the dad was staying over night for consecutive nights?

My wife arrived at the Ashgrove Ward approx 6am, still with no sleep for 3 days at this point the bright lights came on, serving breakfast not long after the father had been asked to leave.

There was no towels or pads on hand available for my wife and she was left feeling disgusting. We had packed these provisions but she was physically unable to get out the bed. As it was our first child she was terrified to leave our new born baby on her own without supervision. Especially when it would have taken her ages to get to and from the bathroom.

My wife asked for a change of bed sheets as covered in blood only for staff to leave and not return, to then ask again if they could get changed as they forgot.

A midwife asked if my wife would like paracetamol and if my wife had any questions, my wife asked questions and was told she will find that info in her red book they gave her.

Later that morning, my wife was very sleep deprived at this point, A midwife came in and asked how much liquids she had drank (just wheeled through not long after just given birth). She told them she had no idea and was continuously questioned about the water intake until she replied with a best guess, it just felt like the staff needed something written down on their sheets to get another tick box done before moving onto the next bed. My wife also had really swollen feet and ankles after the epidural and was offered no compression socks the whole hospital stay.

Is there nothing in place to risk assess woman who have given birth and decide if they require more assistance than others? For example is this your first child or second etc. How many hours has passed since your waters broke? Did you receive an epidural? Was labour or the time leading up to it traumatic? Did you suffer any tears? Do you have a catheter fitted? How about simple common sense and asking the mother if they are ok before the father, being the only help that she has, gets kicked out.

If I was not asked to leave, I would have been able to do provide my wife the clearly needed care that the staff were unable to provide. There was notably a shortage of staff or staff being so busy that they continuously forgot simple requests that my wife had ask for.

An example is asking for change of baby crib mattress cover as our newborn daughter had been sick all over it. It wasn’t until hours later another member of staff came in and noticed we don't have any bedding for the crib, where my wife explained she asked hours ago but must have been forgotten.

One night my wife pushed the buzzer for assistance as our new born was screaming and my wife struggled to get out the bed and thought the baby might need fed only for the member of staff to turn up and screw the lid on a formula bottle, pass it back to my wife and told her to try it and see how she get on and then leave.

My wife was on her knees on the bed holding our baby struggling to move due to the catheter, feeling completely helpless and pathetic that she could not do much, she was also worried about the other mums and newborns in the room were being disturbed because of the crying.

We have thought long and hard about posting this as we are grateful for the NHS but the aftercare was not there and we would not want another new mum to experience this.

There is clearly a short staffing issue where care is thinned out as there was not enough staff to provide care to the women at that time. I also think that fathers should not be asked to leave as it’s all about not separating mum and baby but I believe that dad and baby should matter too.

In our case, I could have provided my wife the after care she really needed at such a vulnerable and sensitive time.