"Such a shame, spoilt by a few mean midwives."

I delivered my son here May 2016.

I had suspected preclamsia, so ended up being induced 38 + 4 weeks. Due to my experience I would definitely request never to deliver again at the PRUH. Although majority of the midwives were lovely & so helpful, I had such a bad experience with a handful, it truly tainted my entire stay. I laboured 36 hour into my stay on the induction ward, during this time I heard numerous women also being induced going into labour. 1 sticks in my mind, her husband rang for the midwife 8 time in 1 hour, the midwives were rushed off their feet but regardless this is unacceptable. When the midwife finally arrived, they seemed annoyed when the husband explained the lady was in pain. The midwife: 'well she is in labour. I only checked her an hour ago & you were only 3 cm dilated, try your gas and air.' Luckily the husband insisted, the midwife checked her & discover she was 9cms & was rushed to labour ward. I also heard numerous women being talked out of epidural when they asked for it. Truly shocking.

Thankfully when my turn to labour came & it was too much, those tricks did not work for me & I had my epidural (despite them trying to talk me out of it)

After delivery (22 hours, ending up in surgery with forceps delivery) my first born beautiful son was born. Sadly my negative experience was about to get worse.

My son had jaundice & was just on the 'should we treat or release line' after 8 injections and blood samples in his new born feet (now black & blue, with 2 samples going missing) they decided he needed light therapy. But would not receive the last blood results until the next day. My partner asked if myself & baby could go home that night ( we live 3 miles away & this was our 4th night in hospital with no sleep) they said we could not, however did put us in a private room the next day to start light therapy.

The baby doctor explained the light therapy procedure to us: '24 hour light therapy, after 6 hours we take blood & check levels' myself and my partner took that as we stop at 6 hours of the baby in the light and wait for results. After 6 hours, we stopped. Called midwife for bloods. (Now 2am) settled baby & got an hours sleep awaiting the results (6am they advised they would be back) however, what we didn't realise was we were suppose to keep the light on for 24 hours going straight. At 3am, the midwife burst through the door screaming at us 'why is the light off?' Confused we explained what we understood. 'No they screamed' literally ripping the clothes off my now screaming newborn. We were so upset. To end it all, the next 3 hour I sat with my baby under the light awaiting results to hear 3/4 midwifes telling each other, how we had turnt the light off to get sleep & saying some horrific things. I confronted them after a couple of hours in tears, they of course acted sheepish and denied all knowledge.

I really wish I took the complaint further at the time, but lack of sleep/confidence I didn't.