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"maternity ward leaves A LOT to be desired"

About: Cumberland Infirmary

I gave birth in this hospital in early december,having previously had positive experiences here I was not worried. As we live a distance from the hospital we called ahead to say I was in labour. The attitude of the midwife on the phone straight away made me not even want to go to hospital " what makes you think your in labour" perhaps contractions every 2 minutes lasting a minute? Then she huffed and puffed and said you best come in then. On arrival to the ward, the midwifes were all sat around the desk and didnt even stand u or acknowledge us. Then being treated like an inconvenience, lead us to a room. I was checked and because I was only in the early stages of labour they said I would have to travel the 30 miles home again because they were full and busy. I was not happy about this due to it being the early hours, Needless to say we were home not even an hour and I needed to come back, On arrival at the hospital again I was 6cm and was labouring quickly. My whole birth experience was ruined by the attitude of the lead midwife.she treat me like a child and was actually arguing with me that I wasnt doing things right and she took the pain relief away from me so I had no form of pain relief at all during what turned out to be a very traumatic birth.I felt like I was rushed and my baby was rushed to be born and I firmly believe this is why things happened as they did. The after care is also terrible, being left in a room alone needing the loo but not being able to stand up for hours after hemorrhaging and with no baby and not even being told whats happening is just shocking. I felt sorry for the 1 midwife on the postnatal ward who had a lot of women to care for and not enough time to do anything, I was in a cubicle and basically ignored for the whole time except when they came to see when I would be leaving because they needed the bed.I will never forget this experience and I wont forgive them for totally ruining my birth experience by a total lack of care. Midwives have a job to look after the care of the mother as well as the baby. Its a privileged job and for them to totally disregard how special it is for a family is disgusting. On a plus side every single one of the nurses in scbu are lovely and do a fantastic job not just with the babies but supporting the family through a difficult time. They are angels in disguise.

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Responses

Response from Cumberland Infirmary 10 years ago
Cumberland Infirmary
Submitted on 31/01/2014 at 10:18
Published on nhs.uk on 01/02/2014 at 03:00


Thank you for taking the time to tell us about the poor experience you received at the Cumberland Infirmary following the birth of your baby in December 2013. Firstly we would like to apologise for the lack of care and compassion which was shown to you at such an important and special time. We have shared your experience with the Head of Midwifery and the senior midwives so that we can immediately learn from your poor experience and how this made you feel. We have also fed back your positive comments to the staff on the Special Care Baby Unit. When patients are discharged with their baby, our community midwives should ask all mums about their experience and whether they have any concerns so that we can follow these up and learn from the experiences of our patients. We apologise again if this did not happen. We also provide an afterthoughts service where mums come back to speak to the midwives about the care they received. We would welcome the opportunity to discuss your concerns and experience with you in person, if you feel you are able and would like to discuss this with us, our Lead Midwife for the Cumberland Infirmary is Chris Bird and she can be contacted directly on 01228 814266. Please accept our apologies again for your poor patient experience; we do hope you will contact us so that we can discuss this with you in person.

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