"Care received by Labour Ward at Nottingham City Hospital "

I was diagnosed with Group B strep whilst I was pregnant, I had some very helpful advice from my Community Midwife and with the help of her, my own GP and my Dr, I was able to arrange to have a home birth which was my wish for my birthing plan. I was happy with the plan that was formulated which involved an agreement that I would attend the hospital to receive my IV antibiotics and then go home and proceed with my home birth.

However, when it came to the time that my labour began, I knew from my past experience that I would be having the baby relatively soon and required to attend hospital to receive the IV antibiotics which I knew took 20 minutes to administer and 2 hours to reach the placenta. I therefore phoned the hospital to inform them that I would be arriving to receive the IV antibiotic and at that point, I was told by the Midwife that I was "stupid" and that I should not be having a home birth, she also told me that I had to phone the community midwife to examine me to make sure that I was in labour. At this point, I was on the telephone to the community midwifes, and at the same time, the City Hospital called me back to state that they had spoken to a Dr, read the care plan and advised me to attend the hospital to be assessed by the midwife.

On arrival at the hospital, at approx 7 am, I was left to wait for an hour and 10 mins before I was given a cannular and an assessment. At this time my labour had progressed to a stage where it was not safe for me to return home for the home birth that I had planned and also time had lapsed to a point where my baby was born before the 2 hour window of antibiotics reaching the placenta to protect him.

My main concern regarding this was that when I had telephone contact with the ward prior to my arrival, an answer was given by the Dr in minutes and the call made back to me, however when I arrived at the labour suite it took 1 hour 10 mins to see a Dr. It appears that decisions about my birth plan were changed by the clinical team available that shift rather than that of my community team and my personal wishes, which feels that all the hard work put in by my community team was to waste.

Following the birth of my baby, I was made to wait 4 hours with my other children before I was discharged as they said it was to do with the amount of paperwork that they have to fill in. However, on the labour suite I was told that I could be discharged within an hour as they have done this previously.

I would like to praise the care that I received from my community midwife throughout my pregnancy and the time she took to help and advise me was fantastic. However I hope this has highlighted my disappointment in relation to the care I received from the City Hospital.