"Delivery/aftercare"

Was admitted to Liverpool women’s hospital for steroids and early delivery of my baby at 33 weeks pregnant.

Also I’m a type 1 diabetic, was meant to be first down for my c section, was taken down around 9am to then find out I wasn’t given magnesium for my baby so had to be taken back to the ward to have it.

I didn’t have my baby girl until after 5:30pm. Bearing in mind I had been nil by mouth since midnight and given no fluids in all that time.

Shortly after my c section my health declined and I felt was dumped in a side room in recovery and left there for 6 days.

Hardly any staff came as I feel they were avoiding me due to me having diarrhoea, though it was due to the lack of fluids and being left for 20+ hours without. I ended up with ketones and low blood sugars I couldn’t treat myself.

It got to a point where my mum, who is a nurse, had to come down to care for me, shower me and tell the staff what to do.

I was discharged being told my bloods where fine but days later I ended up in the emergency room at the women’s due to extremely high blood pressure and to be told that my bloods were not fine on discharge, my kidneys were off and now, days later, the results where significantly worse. I was told that it was probably due to dehydration, surprise surprise! being left so long at the delivery unit days prior.

When being taken into recovery after my c section I was told that my insulin pump shouldn’t of been left on as well as me being on a slide and scale.

The care I received was appalling, in my opinion due to the lack of planning and lack of communication with staff which led to me being so sick after my c section I was unable to see my daughter.  My baby was on the neonatal unit for 3 days due to diarrhoea and then with me still not being right for 3 weeks after birth I only saw her 5 times within that period.

Obviously this had a real effect on me mentally and I will not be going back to the women’s for any future pregnancies as the whole experience was very traumatic.

I definitely feel that more education is needed when it comes to diabetes and pregnancy, mainly type 1 diabetes as the staff don’t seem to have a clue.