"Maternity Care"

I have taken a lot of time to consider writing this feedback. I have worked in the hospital system for 9 year across 4 different hospitals, in both Metro Perth and 2 regional hospitals. I take great pride in how I communicate with patients and their families, understanding the impact that can have on them during the hospital stay.

I had a mixed experience during my time at Busselton hospital when I gave birth to my baby last month. 

I had wonderful care in all of my pre-natal appointments, phone conversations with midwives over the phone and in person when I had questions or concerns. 

My birth experience started with my waters spontaneously breaking at home, which lead to a phone call with the midwives who asked me to come to the hospital to be checked over - I was advised to bring my hospital bag just in case i needed to stay, however otherwise I should expect to be able to go home and continue to labour until i needed to be admitted. 

This process was smooth, i received great care and was reassured about how things were going. I needed an urgent blood test to determine if I could still birth at Busselton or needed to travel to Bunbury - luckily the team were happy for me to go home and wait for the results. 

I was also told if my labour did not progress overnight, I would need to re-present the following morning to be induced due to risk of infection. I was okay with this plan as it was best for me and my baby.

Lucky for me, my labour started to progress and induction was not required. My labour did however progress very quickly and within 2 hours of being at home, my contractions were on top of each other, I couldn't talk through them and needed to get to the hospital. 

My admitting midwife was an angel, she was exactly what I needed however  I knew my time with her was going to be short due to shift changes that would be occurring. 

I was struggling with the pain and requested some pain relief - she completed the required assessments, spoke to the on call obstetrician to authorise the medication and advised it would take 20 minutes to work. An hour later, nothing had changed and I had a new midwife.

It was at this point that I was starting to get distressed with the pain and asked for an epidural. My labour was progressing so quickly that my body could not absorb the pain relief (3-8cm dilated in 2hrs)This is when things changed for me.

My new midwife was trying to convince me not to have an epidural and tried to talk me out of it, offering me a shower instead. Luckily my husband was able to advocate for me while I couldn't due to the pain and the midwife reluctantly, it seemed, called the on call OB and the anaesthetist. Whilst waiting, I had to request for any additional pain relief - not once was I offered or asked about my pain despite visibly struggling. 

After my baby was born, my husband was shown the basics such as swaddling, nappy changes etc however this was done so in an extremely patronising way. Not the best start to learning how to care for our son, especially running on no sleep at 2am in the morning.

My midwifes during the day were fantastic and just what I needed - caring, professional and warm. 

Unfortunately I was experiencing a fair amount of pain but these midwives were onto it and had me sorted as the pain specialist team had been to see me (standard after an epidural) and written up a PRN medication for me to have. Pain was a worry of mine going into the night and sadly I was right to be. 

My night midwife was the same from my birth and I was nervous.

With pain that brought tears to my eyes just to move, I asked for some pain relief. I was then told that no I couldn't have any more Panadol and that I "shouldn't be in that much pain". I was not offered the PRN and felt too embarrassed to then ask for it. This made me feel awful and helpless, and question not only my pain, ability to handle it and that i was doing something wrong. My husband was furious and tried to comfort me as best he could. It was then that we decided we could not stay another night...less than 24hrs after I had given birth.

In the morning, my beautiful day midwives appeared and got me sorted again. When I told them I wanted to be discharged they were surprised at how early we wanted to go and there were a few things that they would typically still need to do but could make it work. As both my baby and I were medically stable, no one questioned it, but I wish they did or asked why. I did not feel comfortable enough to bring it up myself in fear of potentially being treated differently and staying another night with that midwife around knowing I had complained. It felt easier to go home feeling unprepared than staying. 

This was really disappointing in an otherwise great experience. It has affected my mental health, tainted my birth experience for my first baby and left me questioning myself.

I wanted to share this as a reminder to all hospital staff that your words matter. Your words can have a significant impact on people, even if you think it won't. 

To the amazing day midwives, I cannot thank you enough - you will hold a special place in my heart. Your care was all I ever could have imagined. 

To the others, please do better. What you say matters and no one else should be made to feel this way, experience unnecessary pain and have their wishes (request for an epidural) be questioned.